Marriage, Murder, and Mayhem
by Cleopatra Antoinette
Summary: I don't know why I thought planning April O'Neil's wedding would be easy. Between her quibbling about the cake, Casey not wanting to wear a tux, my mutant turtle boyfriend and his family fighting killer robots from another dimension, being a suspect for the murder of my ex-husband, and, oh yes, one of my other friends being mutated, it's a miracle that I haven't had a meltdown yet.
1. Chapter 1

Heeeey guuuuuys! It's me again! And I bring with me the official sequel to my story Peaches, Puzzles, and Problems! I actually had this story more or less planned out when I wrote PPaP, but it took me a while to write it because, well, the last story was like 230-something pages and I needed a break. But now I'm back, and so is the whole motley crew to bring the latest story to all of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Beta Readers! You've stuck with me this far and I hope that you'll stick around for even longer!

Quick warning to my readers- when I wrote Peaches, Puzzles, and Problems, I was still in college and didn't have a real career at the time. I have a definite plot written down, but it'll probably take me longer to write and publish all the different chapters than it took the last time. As long as you're all okay with that, we should be just fine. But don't worry- I have no intention of leaving this story out to dry. It'll just take a bit longer to finish.

I don't own TMNT or any characters therein. So please don't sue. And now, without further ado, I present to you all…

* * *

**Chapter One**

My name is Irma Rose Langinstein. Up until about a year ago, I lived a fairly normal life (I say fairly because I think I'm incapable of really being normal), had a simple but enjoyable job as a librarian, an occasional fling, a ridiculously over-achieving family who looked down on me, and two failed marriages. Alright, one failed marriage. The second husband was the one I got the divorce from. The first one died in a car wreck.

The point is I had a regular, uneventful existence, unlike my best friend April O'Neil's life. And really, it's her fault that I'm still not an oblivious, run-of-the-mill person. Now I run her antique store after my apartment and library were set on fire, and I'm dating a ninja turtle named Donatello who, granted, would not usually be my type, but he's got gorgeous eyes, a fantastic physique, and he treats me like a queen. Also I love him more than I can say.

It's a long story. I'll explain a little bit.

* * *

I met the turtles when April was attacked by a rogue group of ninja that had splintered off of the Foot Clan. She had been seriously injured by some explosions and while I was visiting her in the hospital, those same ninjas snuck in hoping to slit our throats. The turtles came in to rescue her, and consequentially myself as well. We didn't know each other at the time. It was a happy coincidence. That was also the first time Donatello saved my life.

Over the course of the next year, the turtles and Master Splinter became sort of my new family, and they were closer to me than my own was. Donatello and I grew even closer than that, although it took us a great deal of time, a psychopathic ex-Foot ninja, a magic peach, and my own near death for us to realize it.

Like I said, it's a long story. I'll have to tell you guys about it some other time. It's a very important one because it was the first chapter of my own tale with Donatello, and it's the best one in my life. Not that this one is any less wonderful. Actually it might be a little bit better than my own, because this story belongs to the most unlikely of Donatello's brothers. His name is Raphael. Normally, I wouldn't really discuss this myself because it's pretty personal, and I honestly try not to stick my nose in that sort of thing. But I'm taking it upon myself to tell it because it kind of started with me. Well, with my ex-husband. The second one.

Sit back and enjoy. You're gonna love this.

* * *

It was in the early hours of the morning. The sun hadn't yet risen and the streets of New York were (comparatively) quiet. I had awoken from my sleep a few minutes before, but, still feeling that lethargy that sits in your limbs once you're comfortable, I decided to remain in bed and simply enjoy the feeling of my soft, warm pillows and blankets. My eyes stayed closed as I tried to remember what I had been dreaming of only seconds before, and at the same time I found myself thinking "I'll come up with my own ending."

I had no idea what time it was, and neither did I care. All I knew was that I was sleepy, warm, and cozy, and if anyone tried to mess with me and my peace, they were going to be quickly dismembered. Not two minutes later, I heard a window in my kitchen slowly slide open, and the sound of someone carefully crawling through the small space. I sighed in my sleep and reached over (with my eyes closed) for the mace that I had hidden by taping it to the wall behind my nightstand just in case it was a robber or serial rapist. I really should have been freaking out at that point and dialing 911, but I was sort of numb to it. Being almost killed several times seems to have a thing about curing a person of that. Hence the mace. And besides that…

A foot crossed the threshold of my bedroom. My hand wrapped around the mace and I sat up, eyes open, prepared to pepper the intruder mercilessly, but then a force lunged at me, tackled me to the bed, pinning my hands down onto my mattress. My eyes had closed instinctively from the force that had caught me, and when I opened them my vision was filled with green. I couldn't focus because I wasn't wearing my glasses and the person was too close. "Your reactions are still slow," the green blur said.

I grinned and sat up a little to press a kiss to the blur's forehead. "I just woke up and I'm not wearing glasses. Give me a break, Don."

The kiss was returned, pressed against my nose, and my turtle's voice had a hint of laughter in it. "What've your glasses got to do with anything?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not much. Just wanted to use it as a defense. Now, would you mind letting me up? I need to get a head start on the day."

The fingers around my wrists tightened ever so slightly. "Not yet," I heard him whisper huskily above me. "The day can wait a little longer. Besides, this is too good of an opportunity to waste." And when he pressed his lips against mine I decided that I didn't care to argue with him.

* * *

A couple of hours later, I stepped out from the shower and walked into my room to see Donatello still laying in my sheets, his bandana and armguards strewn wherever they had fallen in my room. He opened his eyes sleeping to watch me cross my room to get clothes from my drawers, a slow smile crossing his lips.

"See something you like?" I asked teasingly as I pulled out my outfit for the day.

"I see several things I like and one thing I love," he responded, and then yawned.

"Long night?" I asked, pulling the clothes on.

"M-hmm." He pulled my blankets over him and rolled over to my side of the bed, propping my pillow up under his head. "We were out from eleven until six, and then I came here. Stopped six robberies, two muggings, and what I strongly suspect would have been a rape."

Pulling my shirt on, I walked over to the bed and then leaned over to kiss his forehead. "My hero," I said softly before brushing a thumb over his cheek. He caught my hand in his and kissed it before letting it go. "You coming here tonight?" I asked turning back to grab a pair of shoes.

"Maybe," he said. "Splinter might have me stay in and train though."

"Oh. You want me to come down to visit?" I debated over which pair of earrings to put on when I heard him chuckle behind me. "Nope. Splinter thinks you might be too much of a distraction."

"Alright then." I finished accessorizing and then started walking towards the door to my apartment. April's pawnshop, Second Time Around, was right underneath, and I worked there by myself usually. April loved her store, but she loved being in the action even more, so she and her now-fiancée, Casey Jones, were usually out in the field, looking up artifacts and having crazy adventures together. Then whenever she got home, she'd have more adventures with the four turtle brothers. Personally, I had more than enough adventures to satisfy me without going out to look for more. Smiling wistfully at the bo staff that Donatello had stood in the corner of my living room, I recalled all the times he had used it in my defense. And all the times I had borrowed it to smack something. Or someone. "Help yourself to anything in the fridge," I called back to him as I walked to the front door.

As I turned the handle, his voice came floating in from the bedroom. "Irma!"

"Yeah, Don?" I called back.

"I love you!"

I could feel my cheeks flushing and a shy smile crossing my lips. "I love you, too!" I called back.

* * *

The Second Time Around wasn't an overly popular store, at least not at first glance. Walk-in customers weren't that common and the stock didn't look too much like what regular stock was supposed to. But to be honest, the real clientele preferred to contact us via phone or email. That was because the usual clientele were people in museums or who owned private collections. Our stock consisted mostly of very rare and very valuable items that were stored elsewhere, so what was in the actual store was mostly books and old jewelry, along with some paintings and figurines. Basically the store was sort of a front for the larger work we did. I was supposed to handle the store and take care of any customers that came in, and I did, but I also managed deliveries and took orders. I know that all this makes it sound like we did black-market stuff, but the secrecy was more because a lot of our customers wanted digression. It was true that occasionally we went into the black market to get what we wanted, but we sold only to upstanding citizens. Or people who could pass as such.

Usually when I worked in the store I was on the computer working around orders or trying to communicate with April, who was out of the country at the moment trying to find some old crucifix made by Italian monks in the fourth century. Or something like that. I actually kind of liked it when she was gone. When she was home she tended to get into trouble, and she tended to involve me as well. Last time she did this, we were almost arrested twice and I blew up a car. Well, not on purpose. Someone had planted a bomb on the car that I stole- borrowed, really, because it belonged to some cartel lord and stealing from them doesn't really count- and Leonardo had found out in time to contact me so I could jump out. But then it blew up and took two other cars with it. Anyway, the point is that some of April's escapades were only borderline legal, and I had trouble toeing that line. Mostly because I just didn't have the grace to pull off the odd jobs, nor was I certain that my heart could hold out in the constant pressure. Besides all that, Donnie didn't like it when I was in the middle of all the dangerous activity. The Hamato family worked closely with April and Casey's crime-fighting escapades, and all of them were trained to avoid nasty things like death. As for myself, Death and I were practically best friends.

But lately things had begun to change a bit. With Casey and April's upcoming nuptials, the husband-to-be was trying to get the stubborn red-head to calm the heck down in an attempt to avoid body casts on the big day. Which was unannounced. Still. As the maid of honor, I had had words with my friend about this, and she had responded with "I'm working on it, Irma, just give me some time." Finally I had just thrown my hands up in the air and had said "Oh, to hell with it."

That had been a couple of weeks ago. Now I was downstairs getting ready to open the store when I noticed the mailman getting out of his truck to make his usual delivery. I met him at the door with a friendly smile and took the mail before turning to go back inside.

"Wait, wait," I heard the man say. I looked back at him and he was getting a package out as well. "Here you go. For an Irma Langinstein."

I was surprised. "Well, that'd be me." I wracked my brain, trying to think of what could be in there. I hadn't ordered anything. April hadn't said anything about sending me something. My family most definitely weren't the kind of people who would send me anything. I signed off on the package and took it with a small frown. "Huh," I said to myself. "Now what could you be?"

I waved at the mailman as he left and then went inside to see what was in the box. I set it on the counter and grabbed a pair of scissors. And that was when I noticed it. The person who had sent the box was my ex-husband, Paul Keating.

At first I instinctively wanted to get a matchbox and burn the thing. He and I hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms. I had set fire to his favorite suite and he had shattered a crystal vase from my great aunt, who I hadn't actually liked at all, but it was a crystal vase and you just did not pull that crap! But I gave myself a minute and took a breath. If it was something particularly nasty, I could just go to the police and sue him. Or slash his tires. Or something. Taking the scissors again, I quickly slashed through the tape and opened up the lid, my apprehension making me slightly nervous. Luckily the contents of the box weren't nearly as scary as I had thought.

Inside there was a post-it note from Paul that said "Found this box of junk and didn't want it, so you can have it back." I could practically feel the restrain radiating from the note. I was surprised he hadn't written something with more bite, like "I don't want your crap and you're lucky I didn't put it up on the internet." The box was filled with things that I recognized that I had while I was married to him. There were a few picture frames, a couple of books, and… I froze for a moment and then slowly reached into the box to pull out a stack of letters. I knew what these were. I didn't even have to open them to know what was inside.

When I was dating Paul, and even in the first year of our marriage, I had written love letters to him. Just short, sweet things that I had stuffed into his bag, or his coat, or his papers, so he could find them later and read them. Several of them were a bit on the steamy side, yes, but the majority were just cute. Not that he had really appreciated them. He had tossed most of them aside in his haste to do whatever it was he was doing. From what I heard, it was typically to get some other woman's clothes off. But that just made my blood pump, and I set the letters aside to see what else was in there. "Oh, for god's sakes," I muttered to myself. Paul had been thoughtful enough to include in the pile of junk our wedding photo album, still sitting in its lovely white and gold book. I was sure, judging from the fine layer of dust on it, that he hadn't opened it in years. Not that he ever had before either. I tossed the album back into the box and set it on the floor behind the counter for the duration of the day. Later that night, when brought it all upstairs with me, I dumped it on the coffee room table. It had brought back memories from before, and while they annoyed me, they also made me a little sad. The letters and the pictures had been from a time when I had been happy and thought I was in love (looking back now, I hadn't really been, but that didn't make it hurt less). I hadn't decided what I was going to do with them yet, but I knew one thing for sure- if I kept them around, they were going to be trouble.

I didn't know until later just how right I was.

* * *

One chapter down, who knows how many more to go! If you've read Peaches, Puzzles, and Problems and are wondering how long it's been since that story ended and this one began, it's been just a few months, so not too much has happened in the meantime. Things will continue to get interesting as time goes on, and Lord willing, it'll be fun to read and write.

If you see any issues with the story, please let me know and I'll do my best to rectify the situation. Or if you just want to review and say you think it's fantastic, that's fine too! I know I'd appreciate it! See you next time!


	2. Chapter 2

So here's the next part in the delightful continuing adventures of Irma and the gang. But before that, I thought I should answer a question posed to me by one of my beta readers. The question is "Are the turtles still super active, but Irma isn't with them on a lot of their missions, or are they not as active as before for reasons unknown?" The answer is that they are as active as ever saving the world, but those various missions aren't very important when we get to these stories. They save New York from a lot of crazy stuff, but I can't add all that in because the story would quickly move from a single story to a huge series, and frankly I just don't really have the energy for that. Right now, at least. So all you need to know is that those extra adventures are happening in the background and we're focusing on Irma's POV, which at the moment is explosion-free. And she's pretty happy that way.

Thanks to my beta readers and all their help!

I don't own TMNT or anything affiliated with them. Except for pajamas, and those were a gift!

* * *

**Chapter Two**

I woke up the next morning alone in bed, which I didn't mind too much because it gave me more room to stretch my waking limbs. Donnie took up more than half the bed thanks to his shell and size, so I didn't get to stretch as much when he slept in the same bed as me. Or at least, not like I was doing at that moment. We did plenty of other kinds of stretching.

I clambered out of bed a couple of minutes later, intending to head towards the kitchen to grab some breakfast. This plan was put to an abrupt halt when I saw Donatello sitting on my sofa going through the package that Paul had sent me the day before. I couldn't see the expression on his face, but I could tell by his stance that he was troubled by what he was reading. It was by far one of the most awkward moments of my life.

"Donnie, babe, I, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to see that." I quickly walked over to him wearing the baggy t-shirt and sweatpants I had worn for pajamas intending to take the box away. The thing was going to be set on fire along with everything inside. "He just sent it to me yesterday and I hadn't decided what I was going to do with it all, but now I'm going to take it and douse it in gasoline and-"

"I didn't know you read computer code," he interrupted me.

That stopped me in my tracks. "Huh?"

"Computer code." He held up the paper in the envelopes so I could see what was written on them. I blinked and took a piece of paper from him.

"What the hell is this?" I asked, flipping back to front. There was nothing on the paper except repeating series of 0's and 1's over and over and over in uninterrupted lines.

"Computer code," Don repeated again. "Like the DNA of computers. It tells the programs what to do. Did you not know what it was?"

"Uh… No, I am just as surprised as you are." I felt a moment of relief. I had really dodged a bullet there. For a moment I thought I was going to have to explain why I had a box of old love letters in my apartment, but now that I knew that it was something else-

"So why were you so worried for a second there?"

My eyes flew up to his face. He had a serious expression on his face. "Uhhh…"

He tapped his large fingers against the wood of the coffee table. "Yes?"

"Uhhh…" That was about all I had to say.

Donatello sighed and stood up so that we were (more or less) eye to eye. I hated it when he did that. "Irms," he said softly, and that was all.

See, this was the part of our relationship that I was still having trouble with. It wasn't so much that I didn't want him to know everything… it was more that I was too ashamed to let him know. But he was giving me that LOOK, the one that said he wasn't sad or angry so much as hurt, and that made my innards squeeze together in an uncomfortable feeling. With a sigh, I decided to confess.

"Okay, my ex-husband sent the box and it's full of stuff from our… time together."

His expression gave nothing away. "So you thought that I'd be hurt that you loved someone before me?"

"Actually, I was more concerned with the thought that you were reading my old love letters to him."

His jaw dropped a little. "Love letters! You wrote him love letters?"

I instantly became defensive. "Yeah, so? What's wrong with that? We were married and it was cute at the time."

He turned his head away and tried to look like he was seriously examining the documents in front of him. "You've never written me a love letter," he grumbled quietly.

I stared at him. "Really? That's what you're upset about? Really?"

Scowling, he moved towards the kitchen. This was his usual trick. When he was upset about something, he'd go to the kitchen and act like he wanted to eat something but really just wanted an excuse to open and slam a few cupboard doors. "It was years ago, Don," I said, following him. "I was younger, and I was nuts about him, and I thought he loved me, too, and I haven't done it since because the thought never occurred to me." He stared at me. "Oh, don't you give me that look," I pointed at him accusingly. "Just because I never wrote you a love letter doesn't mean I haven't let you into some deep, dark part of my soul or something equally dramatic like that." He still said nothing, but had thankfully stopped slamming the cupboard doors. Taking his face in my hands so he would have to face me, I stared deep into his eyes until a faint blush showed on his cheeks, and I kissed him thoroughly. When I pulled back, he seemed somewhat mollified, but not entirely, so I proceeded to kiss him lightly all over his face until he chuckled and rested his head against my shoulder. "Do you want me to write you a letter?" I wouldn't mind writing him one if he did… but when I thought of writing love letters, I thought of my former husband, and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

He shook his head against my neck. "Nah… That's something you did with him. I'd rather come up with something new for us."

I grinned. "We can do that."

"Excellent." And then he proceeded to nibble at my collarbone.

"No, no, no… Not now, babe." As much as I would have liked to give into his suggestion, I did have work to do downstairs. With a sigh he loosened his arms from around my waist and stretched his arms above his head. "I'd ask you how your night went, but that'll have to wait until later. I'll come down to the Lair tonight and cook, how's that sound?"

"Sounds awesome. I need to head home and do some work anyway. I've got these calculations I need to complete and I should get a head start on them soon."

I began walking back to my bedroom yawning. "Well, try to get some sleep, okay? It's not good for you pull these all nighters constantly."

"I will, don't worry." He headed for the window and blew me a kiss as he slid outside. "See you tonight."

* * *

At five in the evening, I began closing up the shop while also making a mental checklist of the things I needed to purchase at the store in preparation for dinner that evening. Myself, plus the four turtles, plus Master Splinter, and possibly April and Casey would pop in as well… Having made the necessary calculations, I decided on a recipe and everything that would be needed. At five thirty, I was done closing everything up and was on my way to the store.

My cell phone was sitting comfortably in my pocket when it began to vibrate when I was just two feet away from my car. "It's gonna be Mikey," I mumbled to myself as I began to unlock the door to my car. "He's gonna ask for pizza. Bet myself five dollars."

Pulling out my phone, I looked at the screen. "Yep. Mikey."

Quickly pressing the Accept button, I wedged the phone between my shoulder and ear as I tried to unlock my car door. "Hey, bro. What's up?"

"Yo, Irma!" His voice was cheery as always and I grinned to myself at how upbeat he was. Michelangelo, the youngest of the four Hamato brothers, radiated excitement and energy just like the sun gave off heat. It actually wouldn't be too far of a stretch to compare the two of them to each other. "Just callin' my favorite big sister to see how she's doing!"

"Aw, that's sweet of you. I'm doing really well, thanks for asking." I opened the door and slid inside, patting my steering wheel. "Hey, Gary," I said to my car. Gary was a 2002 Camery who had been by my side since my years in High School. I was fond of the vehicle and referred to it by name quite often. "So how's things with you, Mike?"

"Pretty awesome, actually! But Don told me you were gonna make dinner and I was just calling to see what you were thinkin' about getting."

I knew it. "Actually, I was thinking about making that Mexican Ranch Casserole." I loved that recipe myself. It had cheese, chicken, bell peppers, spices, sauces; it was pretty much an all-around delicious meal.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh…" Michelangelo said, feigning interest. "That sounds, uh, really good, but, you know, I was thinking of something even easier."

I repressed a sigh. "Really, what's that?" There wasn't any real reason to ask since I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

"I was thinking something with cheese… and bread… marinara sauce…"

"Spaghetti and meatballs with parmesan and a side of French bread?"

A moment's pause. "Uh, close! Really close! Both of them are Italian in nature, but one of them is more round, and has crust-"

"Calzones." I loved this game.

"No!"

"Well, I can keep guessing, Mikey, there's like a thousand different Italian foods."

"Pizza, Irma! Sheesh!"

This time I couldn't hold back my sigh. While I had nothing against the dish as it were, the turtles, especially Mikey, ate it far too much for my own liking. "Mike, you keep eating this stuff your body is going to adjust so you can't eat anything BUT pizza!"

He gasped and then asked if this was really possible in an excited tone of voice that was usually reserved for when a person was told they had won the lottery. I should have known it would just encourage him.

"Alright, fine," I said resignedly. "What kind do you want? And don't say jellybeans. Or gummy bears. Actually, you know what, I'm just going to get pepperoni. Safest bet."

"Awesome! I'll be there to greet you at the door when you get down here!"

"It better not be with a pizza slicer. This stuff is going to be for everyone."

"What they don't know won't hurt them."

"NO, Michelangelo."

* * *

About forty five minutes later, I was walking down an empty alleyway towards a thick metal door with a security keypad at the end. Quickly typing in the numbers and then doing a retinal scam, the door clicked open and I slipped inside, shutting the door behind me. The security device had been installed by Donnie a few weeks before. Now that their number of human friends had grown, the turtles decided that it would be best to have an easier entrance into the sewers for them. It wasn't that I necessarily minded crawling through manholes to get to the home of the man (er, terrapin) I loved, but trying to explain to someone why you were clambering down a dark hole dressed in regular clothes without anything to show that you were a professional was difficult, to put it lightly. So Donatello went ahead and made a secondary entrance for their human friends, promising that he'd take every precaution in keeping it secret and safe. He had implied that if he wanted to, the door and its tunnels could disappear overnight if he so desired. I didn't doubt it.

I carried four large pizzas in my arms, one pepperoni, one sausage, one extra cheese, and one margarita. They were from my favorite pizza parlor, a small family restaurant, and they loved me since I had become a familiar face within the last two years. The boys often sent me on pizza runs. I liked the place well enough on my own, except for the fact that the older couple running it kept trying to set me up with their son. I may have taken advantage of the fact he liked me. Once. Twice. Okay, a few times, but pizza wasn't cheap!

The hallway was small but clean, and towards the end of the hall there was an elevator. I stepped in and once again punched in a code on the keyboard. This time it took a scan of my fingerprints, and when it was confirmed that I was allowed access, the elevator began to move slowly downwards. Gentle music played over the speaker, and it brought a sudden smile to my face when I remembered the time Raph had changed the music to punk rock and stalled the elevator so that I was stuck listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers for an hour. Thankfully, this time was different and the elevator came to a gentle stop after a couple of minutes. I took a deep breath and braced myself for what was coming next.

The doors opened with a gentle ding, and then-

"IRMA!" A big blur of green and orange came tumbling into the elevator and I found myself being accosted by my newest youngest brother. I couldn't stop the tiny screech of panic that escaped my throat as his strong arms came around me and then quickly caught the pizzas as they slipped from my fingers. This was a regular tradition for us. He'd try to tackle me, and he would succeed, and he would be so quick that I'd be scared out of my wits that he'd crush my ribs. Then he'd catch the pizza and tease me while we walked towards the Lair, where I would be greeted differently every time. This time was pretty good.

Leo met me at the door with a smile and quickly snatched the pizzas from Michelangelo before he had a chance to go at them. Which he had actually done before.

"How've you been, Irms?" Leo asked as he escorted me towards the dining area. "It's been a couple weeks since I last saw you."

"Yeah, you guys have been super busy saving the world and all that. Got a lot on your plate."

Leo shrugged, but couldn't fight back a small please smile that appeared at the corner of his mouth.

I grinned at him and then noticed Raphael sitting on a sofa reading a magazine. "Hey, Raphael!"

He didn't look up, but gave a fist-pump in my direction. "Yo."

"Ah, Irma." Master Splinter walked into the room, radiating serenity and wisdom as usual. "It is good to see you again my daughter."

Now it was my turn to try to hide a pleased grin. It still made me happy knowing that I had a father. One besides my actual father who contacted me maybe once a year. With an unsigned postcard. My mother also didn't sign it, so, you know, lots of fluffy, family feels there.

"Hey, where's Don?" I asked, setting down my stuff on a counter in the kitchen.

"I think he's in the lab," said Mikey. He was trying to get to the pizza before Leo portioned it out on the plates. He stopped when Master Splinter whacked his son's hand with his staff.

"Thanks! I'll go get him!" As I began walking towards the lab, I heard Raphael call after me "Don't take half an hour like that one time! You fooled no one!"

My face was, undoubtedly, red at that point. I couldn't see how red exactly, but I could see how quickly I was walking. It was fast. Within moments I found myself outside the lab, and I peeked inside to make sure that there wasn't anything that could set me on fire within five feet. Occasionally, Donnie's experiments would include what one might refer to as 'potentially combustible materials'. After one or two incidents, I had decided to always wait a few moments until I was certain it was safe. Usually when I thought it was, it wasn't. But what was life without a few risks?

Stepping into the room, I looked around to see where the errant turtle was. I located him in the corner of the room, bent over a table as he studied the blueprints to whatever he was designing in front of him. I didn't say anything since I knew he was already aware to my presence. One of the perks of being a ninja. Instead I walked up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Heya, handsome," I said.

"Hey, gorgeous," he said, not looking at me. All his concentration was focused on the figures in front of him, but the warmth in his voice was obvious. "What do you need?"

"I was ordered to tell you that dinner was in twenty seconds sharp. I was given strict orders. It was implied that the last time I spent half an hour getting you to come to dinner, we 'fooled no one'."

"The time… oh. Oooooh!" This time, he turned to look at me, a slow grin spreading across his face as he remembered the events of that one time. "I remember that now."

"Yeah, I imagine it would be hard to forget."

"M-hmm… Although some of the details are fuzzy. I think I might need a repeat-"

My mind was flooded with some very delightful images, but it was overpowered by the fact that this time they wouldn't be so kind as to leave us to ourselves. "I think I may have completely corrupted you, Donatello Hamato."

"And a wonderful process it was, too."

He kissed me lightly on the lips and then stood, walking towards the kitchen. "We should sit at different sides of the table so they don't make any comments."

But we shouldn't have worried. When we got back to the main room, the other brothers were too busy greeting April and Casey to the Lair to pay any attention to the two of us. The redhead and her athletic fiancée were smiling happily as they were greeted by their old friends. When the saw the two of us, they came to hug me immediately.

"I haven't seen you in ages, April!" I said excitedly. "How was that treasure dive off the coast of Spain?"

"Terrific! We didn't find the main wreck, but we found evidence to prove that it may have been a mutiny rather than a surprise attack by the English like it was thought all these years." April O'Neil, explorer extraordinaire. When she wasn't saving the world with her turtle friends, she was making historical discoveries. Or at least ones that would interest historians in specialized fields.

"That's really cool," I said, turning to hug Casey fondly. "And how's my favorite masked fiend?"

"Doin' great, as usual," he replied, patting me on the back. "Thanks for holding down the fort for us."

"My pleasure," I said, and I meant it. After a little more chatting, we all settled down at the table and began passing around plates and cups for the pizza and soda. "Just so you're all aware," I began, "I just want it known that I was going to cook something besides pizza this time, but someone insisted I get something else."

"Wonder who that could have been" said Donnie dryly.

Mikey said something, but none of us could understand since his mouth was full of pizza at the time. Splinter sighed, but only took another sip of his tea. "It is good to have everyone here," he remarked with a small smile. "It has been too long since we were all together."

"Yeah…" I sighed happily and leaned back in my chair, basking in the warmth of having so many loved ones around me. As I sat there, I felt someone's eyes on me. I glanced over at Donatello, expecting it to be him, but he was laughing over something Casey had said. Then my eye's caught Raphael's. _Oh…_

He was sitting at the other side of the table, with a little smirk on his face, the pizza on his plate half eaten. His arms were crossed, and he lounged in his chair looking as content as a five-and-a-half foot, anthropomorphic turtle could. He was watching me, an almost gentle expression on his face. I couldn't help the light blush that worked its way onto my cheeks, remembering what had passed between us a while ago.

Once, when we were first together, Donnie and I had decided to end our relationship for a brief time, (and by 'decided to end our relationship', I mean we got into a fight the likes of which were legendary), and Raphael had taken the opportunity to tell me he also had feelings for me. And then he kissed me.

Nothing happened outside of that. I had told him gently that I loved him, but as a brother, and he had graciously backed down and had been nothing but supportive of my relationship with Donatello ever since. But still, every once in a while, I would catch him watching me when he knew no one else was watching. It made me feel a little sad that he felt that way, especially since I couldn't help but think I was causing him pain, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it. Plus… I had to admit I was a little flattered. There wasn't a girl out there who wouldn't be, what with a guy like that admiring them. I mean, granted, said guy was actually a turtle, but still.

My thoughts were pulled back when I felt a hand land gently on mine. I looked over at it to see Donnie's hand covering my own. He wasn't looking at me, because he was still talking to April and Casey, but his thumb was slowly caressing the skin on my hand, just to let me know that he knew I was there, and he loved me. A smile bloomed on my face, and I turned my hand over so I could hold his and squeeze it.

We continued our meal, happily chatting with each other until we were fully stuffed. I rose and began to clear away the plates when I saw that everyone had started to stop eating.

"Irma," Splinter said, "You don't always have to be the one to clean up after us." He gave a sharp command, and the four boys immediately jumped up and began to help gather things up and take them over to the sink.

"But Splinter, I don't mind helping," I told him. "I like helping."

"Yes, I know. And if my sons were exhausted from a long night of fighting or training, I would gladly allow you to take care of all their needs in order for them to rest. And you would do it without hesitation. But they cannot grow too reliant on you. They will begin to take you for granted, otherwise."

"Impossible, Sensei," Donatello announced, coming over to me to pick up my dishes. "I spend a lot of time reflecting on how grateful I am to her." Then he leaned over to kiss my cheek before moving away.

"Awwwww…" April grinned at me. "You have him wrapped around your finger, don't you?"

"More like the other way around," I laughed, but I felt oddly pleased that she would say such a thing.

"C'mon and sit down, tell us what's new." Casey was making himself comfortable, and began to put his feet up on the table. Master Splinter made quick work of that and whacked Casey's legs with his cane. "Owch! You could have asked me to move them!"

"Yes, but the bruises will last longer than a verbal reminder."

Casey rolled his eyes and let his legs down. I began telling them what was going on. "Not much new is happening here. The shop is doing well, and I've sold a few things there. Most every call I get are requests and job offers, and of course I send those on to you guys. And meanwhile, in the wedding department," And here I gave a meaningful look to April, "there's several venues open, but most churches are booked during the summer. I'm thinking maybe you should look into a spring or fall wedding. Those are still two very beautiful seasons, as long as you time them right. Plus, it might be cheaper in the long run.

"Have you already picked the wedding dress, too?" joked Casey.

"I might have to. It's been six months and April still hasn't settled on a date, much less a dress."

April scowled at me. "I've been busy, you know that."

"Yeah, but you need to get this stuff on the road. If we plan it quickly and carefully, then you'll have a lot less stress in the future. I mean, unless you just want to go to the court house and sign a certificate."

Casey gave a chortle. "Yeah, right. I can't give my girl too much, but I'm definitely gonna get her the wedding of her dreams." April smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"Then in that case, we need to get some plans settled. If you want to be married in a church or not, where you want the reception, who's going to cater, what dress you want…"

"Sounds really… detailed." April seemed less than enthusiastic.

"Well, yeah." I myself had had two weddings, and while the second one had been in Las Vegas, there had still been some planning involved. "But look, if we start now and we make a deadline, it'll be a lot easier as we go along. We could start _right_ now."

"Woah, woah, we just got back." Casey picked up his beer bottle and took a swig. "Let's just take this a day at a time. We have plenty of time to talk about this stuff tomorrow after a big breakfast and a good night's sleep."

After a moment's hesitation, I nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have rushed you."

"No problem." April grinned at me. "It's your job as Maid of Honor."

"Matron of Honor. Remember Calvin Harris. And Paul Keating."

Before anyone could respond, Mikey came back to the table and dropped Monopoly on it. "Game Time!" he shouted happily.

Several hours later, April, Casey and I were saying our goodbyes to the turtles and Splinter. Mikey was already yawning. He hugged the three of us goodbye before heading to his room to go to sleep. Leo and Master Splinter went next, and then finally Raphael. April and Casey left a little before me, leaving me alone in the Lair to say goodbye to Donnie. He wrapped an arm around me affectionately and nuzzled my hair. "You could stay the night here with me, you know. I worry about you walking alone."

"I'll get a cab, don't worry."

"And you aren't even marginally interested in my offer."

"Oh, I'm more than marginally interested, but you have to get up extra early to train, and I have work tomorrow." He sighed, but nodded. "Hey, there's always this weekend," I said, trying to comfort him.

"I know… I just like being with you all the time." Then he looked at me with those big, beautiful eyes, and I melted. "I love you, Don."

He wrapped both arms around me and kissed me hard. "Love you, too. And I'll see you tomorrow."

At that moment, everything in the world seemed nearly perfect. I couldn't think of anything that could make it any better. Well, one thing. But that was hardly the appropriate time to act on those impulses. So with one last kiss, I headed home, and fell deeply asleep almost as soon as I hit the bed.

Looking back, it was a good thing I had had such a good evening. I was going to need those good memories in the not too-distant future.

* * *

So in Peaches, Puzzles, and Problems, I always spelled out Donatello's nickname as 'Donny'. However, the new TV series and TMNTpedia have informed me that the canon spelling is, in fact, Donnie. Personally I don't really see a big difference, but I will bow to canon. Plus, it's nice to know one way or the other what it actually is.

So this is actually a pretty long chapter. But hopefully it was a quality one. I know the story is starting off slow, but like I did with PPaP, I'm trying to lay down the groundwork for the main plot. Be patient, we'll get to the exciting bits eventually.

If you'd like to show support, or you have some constructive criticism for me, please let me know in a review! I always appreciate it when people point out mistakes I've made (in polite, respectful ways), because it helps me look out for them in the future.

See you guys next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Yippee! Chapter three! I'm excited for this one because this is where it all starts to heat up! The plot begins to thicken… Anyway, have a fun time reading! See you at the end of the chapter!

I just want to take a moment to thank all my faithful followers, who have been reading along since PPaP and are still around. You guys are fantastic! And I also want to thank all my new readers. You guys have all been so supportive and kind, it makes writing these stories really worthwhile to know that they're so enjoyed. I hope I can continue to make you guys happy with my works for a long time to come!

I do not own TMNT in any way. If I did, Irma and Donnie would be completely canon.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

The weekend came sooner than I thought it would. Once April got back in town, she and I began to go through the job requests that had come in for her and Casey. There were several of them, and I had to do research to ensure that the jobs were both legitimate, and feasible given the company's financial situation and time constrictions. As for April, she had to make sure that the potential clients were legit. Background checks had to be done, cautious examination of their records. We didn't do anything illegal, but some of the people who asked us to help them were at times less than reputable. It went by pretty quickly, especially with the help of some of Donnie's search programs that he had whipped up for me.

April was the one who made all the final decisions though. Which ones she was willing to take and which ones she wasn't. I just supplied the info.

"I don't think you should leave town for a while," I told her. "Hire some outside help to get whatever it is they want. You need to be here if you want an actual wedding."

"Can't you handle all those details for me?"

"No! Hire a wedding planner if that's what you really want, but you'd still need to be around for consulting. It's your big day, they'd want to make sure you're happy with everything. Besides," I said, shuffling through some papers, "I've planned my share of weddings on my own. Not interested in doing it again."

"Not even for your best friend?"

I gave April what I hoped was a withering glare. "You set me on fire once."

"That was a complete accident, and I didn't know that rocket was aimed at you."

"You burned up my jacket. That was a two hundred dollar jacket."

"I introduced you to the love of your life!"

"Please. You were about to be assassinated and he happened to show up in time. Hardly an introduction."

April looked like she was about to say something else when the sound of the front door opening reached us. I immediately stood up and left the office to go see who it was with my best friendly face on. My smiled faltered when I saw who it was though. Two policemen stood in the store, their faces and body language letting me know that they weren't there to browse.

One of the officers was an older man, who gave me a smile. I knew it was meant to be reassuring, but that didn't help the anxiety I felt growing inside me. "Can I help you gentlemen?"

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Officer Warrens, and this is Officer Blake." They both pulled out their police ID and showed them to me. "We're looking for a Miss Irma Langenstein."

The bad feeling grew rather rapidly with that statement. "That would be me. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, but we need to ask you a few questions."

"Questions? What for? What is this about?"

"We're working on a case that we think you might be able to help us with."

My eyes narrowed somewhat suspiciously. "What case? Am I a suspect or something?"

"We have no reason to consider you as such, but if we could ask you a few questions, we'd greatly appreciate it. It concerns your ex-husband, Paul Keating."

Now that got my attention. My thoughts immediately went to the box upstairs in my apartment. "What do you need?"

"We would appreciate it if you could come down to the police station to speak to the officer working on the case and see if you have anything we could use."

"I'll need to get in contact with my attorney," I said immediately. "Would it be possible to meet you there with him in an hour or so?"

"Of course, that's completely acceptable. Just give the station a call if you're detained."

"Thanks. I'll be there as soon as I can."

The policemen politely said goodbye and left the store. The moment they were out of sight, I leaned against the nearest counter and let out a shaky breath. April came out and stood beside me. "You okay, Irma?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I just have to call my lawyer."

"What did you do?"

"I have no idea! They say it has something to do with my ex. When it comes to him it could be anything. Maybe he used my name as an alias so he could make animal porn or something."

April gave a little giggle. "Now that'd be a rumor to spread about him."

"Actually there's a good chance he is actually doing it." April stopped smiling and stared at me until I got uncomfortable. "I was young and he was cute." She kept staring. "Shut up," I snapped finally, and headed upstairs to get dressed and call my lawyer.

* * *

About an hour later, I was sitting in an office in the police station. I was wearing a navy blue pencil skirt with a white sweater, and black heels. My lawyer, Mr. Montgomery, sat next to me wearing a gray suit with a yellow tie. He had salt-and-pepper hair and an open, friendly face. He was a nice man, with a gentle voice, but he had a mind that was sharp as a carving knife.

We both sat in comfortable, but small chairs across from a desk, behind which sat a middle-aged man with graying hair. He had a harried look about him, and the rolled-up white sleeves and stacks of papers on the desk gave the impression of someone who had to deal with the little, irritating things a lot. But when he spoke he was very polite. He stood up and leaned over his desk to shake my hand as we came into the office.

"Are you Irma Langinstein?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, shaking his hand. "They told us to come to your office when we asked at the front desk."

"Sure, sure," he said. "I'm Detective Keltin, the one who asked for you to come down here."

"Of course." Before I said another word I gestured towards Mr. Montgomery. "I'm sorry, I should have introduced you when we came in. This is my attorney, Mr. Montgomery."

Mr. Montgomery held out his hand. "You and I spoke on the phone before we came."

"Oh, right." Detective Keltin looked less than enthusiastic to have an attorney in his office, but he offered his hand, and Mr. Montgomery shook it with an easy smile. Afterwards, he gestured to the chairs. "Please, sit down."

We did so, and I folded my hands across my lap trying to hide my nervousness. The detective cleared his throat and began to speak before Mr. Montgomery held up his hand. "Just a moment, please." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a recorder, setting it on the table and turning it on. "Now, before we start, I would just like to have it on record that on the phone, you stated that my client is not under suspicion as a suspect and you agreed to have this conversation recorded, correct?"

Detective Keltin cleared his throat. "That is correct."

"Alrighty then, I think we can start this." Mr. Montgomery sat back in his chair in a show of being relaxed, but I knew he was closely observing everything. Keltin gave him an irritated glance, and then spoke to me.

"Miss Langinstein, you've been told why we asked you down here, right?"

"It's about Paul, right?"

He nodded. "We needed to ask you a few things concerning your ex husband."

"Okay. What about?"

"Miss Langinstein, when was the last time you spoke to Paul Keating?"

I frowned slightly, thinking about it. "Ummm… I'd say about four years ago in court. We were at the last hearing before we finalized our divorce." I repressed a grimace at the memory. "Neither of us were very interested in talking to each other. Especially not if we had to say anything nice."

"So you and your husband had a bad relationship?"

"We wouldn't have gotten a divorce if we didn't." I failed to mention that our divorce case had been the stuff of legends as far as divorces were concerned, complete with hurling insults as well as any objects we could get our hands on. We had almost gotten arrested at one point before we had forced ourselves to calm down and discuss things civilly, if not cordially.

"Of course. So you've had no contact with him since then?"

I shook my head, feeling my curiosity arise. "No… May I ask what this is about, sir?"

Keltin gave a little sigh and sat back. "Well, Miss Langinstien, Paul Keating disappeared two weeks ago without any indication of where he'd gone or why. He left no messages, no phone number, nothing. As far as we can tell it wasn't a forcible removal. His current girlfriend said she came home to find his suitcase and clothes gone. He left his cell phone, credit cards, anything that we might use to track him. He has gone completely off the grid."

This was surprising. Paul wasn't what I would call the most sociable of guys in the world. He was charming enough when he wanted to be, but he had a habit of making smart comments when he shouldn't and pushing people over the edge when it would have been much better not to. But despite all that, he was extremely intelligent and ran a very successful law firm… when he wasn't hung over or sneaking around with sluts. It was actually his intelligence and wit that drew me to him in the first place. Of course that turned into a complete fiasco in the end, but that wasn't really a surprise given my previous track record.

"Are you sure he didn't just… um… go off to India to find himself or something?" It wasn't so much that I wasn't worried about him, I was just… well, to be honest, if he had decided to bungee jump into a live volcano I probably wouldn't have tried too hard to stop him. Besides, the Paul I had known had actively enjoyed doing things of a reckless and potentially dangerous nature. That was also something that had attracted me to him. It was also something that I had hoped would lead to a serious injury towards the end of the relationship.

Keltin apparently noticed my lack of concern. Maybe I was too obvious. "Well, we talked to his girlfriend and checked what records we could find, and there was nothing to indicate that he had made any travel plans. His girlfriend and acquaintances all said that he showed no indication of any worries, or abnormal behavior, etc. etc."

"Well, what I remember of Paul, he wasn't really normal anyway."

Mr. Montgomery nudged my foot. I got the hint. Detective Keltin was looking at me with an odd expression.

"Miss Langinstien, we, ah, did find a receipt among Mr. Keating's belongings." I made no comment. He continued. "It was a FedEx receipt." I still said nothing. "Did you receive a package from your ex husband?"

I looked over at the lawyer. He gave me a small nod. "Yyyes." I said finally. "A couple of days ago. But there was nothing in there that was personal. I mean, like, recently personal." The detective gave me a look that clearly said he expected me to continue. "He sent me a box that had our… wedding album and… old love letters. Nothing else. Just a note saying he found the stuff in his attic and didn't want it anymore." I fell into silence after that, and swallowed, suddenly finding myself thinking about when we took the pictures that filled the album that he decided he didn't want out of the blue.

"Yes, well." The detective cleared his throat again. "What we're interested in, naturally, would be anything that tells us where he is and where he's gone. Was there a return address, or any new pictures, any new notes…?"

I shook my head. "No, nothing. I recognized everything in there."

"Okay then…" Keltin sat back in his chair with a contemplative expression. "So you can't think of anywhere he may be?"

"Like I said before, sir, I haven't spoken to him in years. That box was the only… it wasn't what I would call contact because we didn't talk to each other, but it was the first time I'd heard from him since the divorce. We both made it very clear that we wanted nothing more to do with each other after it was finalized."

"I see…"

Mr. Montgomery sat up a little. "Well, if there are no more questions for my client…"

Detective Keltin nodded. "Just one last thing. Miss Langinstien, would it be possible for us to take a look at the box and the contents in it?"

Mr. Montgomery turned to me. "You don't have to if you'd rather not, Irma. The contents are personal property and as you are not a suspect you are not obligated to do anything."

Now the evil eye from Keltin was very obvious. "I would still appreciate the help regardless, ma'am."

Now here was the issue. I didn't want to NOT cooperate with the police… but I didn't want to have them go through my personal love letters and marriage pictures more. "I, uh, I would prefer to keep it to myself, really. It's just that those things are really personal, and yes, it didn't work out, but it's still, it's just-"

The detective stood up and held up his hands. "No, no, I understand. I do. It's not what I hoped to hear, but I do understand. I hope, however," and here he walked around the desk to stand in front of my chair, "that if you do find anything that you think might give us a lead, you'll give us a call."

I stood up and nodded my head. "Yeah, of course. And, will you let me know if you hear anything about him, or is that not allowed?"

"As far as details go, we can't tell you, but if you choose to cooperate further, we can let you know more of the facts."

"Thanks for the information, Detective." Mr. Montgomery held out his hand to shake Keltin's before I could say anything. "My client and I will be in touch if we need to."

His message came through loud and clear. I shook the detective's hand and said my goodbyes as Mr. Montgomery picked up the recorder, and left the office with him.

I walked next to my lawyer down the hall. "So, what did you think?"

He shrugged. "Well, I have it on record that you are not a suspect, so that's good. As far as your ex being missing, well… there's really nothing more unless you do have information pertaining to the case."

"I don't, but if I did, what would happen?"

"Well, as I said, you aren't a suspect so you wouldn't have to give up any information, but if you did, and you wanted to give it up, then that would be great."

I was confused. "Really?"

The man next to me stopped walking and watched me carefully with a serious face. "Irma, this is a missing man we're talking about. Regardless of your past with him, and how you feel about him, this is another human being. If there's something that can be done to help him, it should be done."

I nodded. I wouldn't have called Paul human, but technically he was, so he probably deserved some consideration. "If I find something, I'll bring it in," I promised. That seemed to satisfy my companion, because the calm smile came back and he nodded.

"Well, it's time for me to head off. My son is coming in with his family today and I told my wife I'd help her get the house ready."

"Okay. Thanks for your help, Mr. Montgomery."

"My pleasure, Irma. If you need anything else, just give me a call."

After saying that, he continued walking briskly down the hall until he was out of sight. I walked after him in a less-brisk pace, going through my purse for the keys to my car. Until I heard someone cry out my name.

"IRMA!" I spun around immediately just in time to see a human-shaped blur rushing towards me. The next thing I knew, a pair of arms was wrapped around my shoulders and I was being tightly hugged. It was a strange moment, to say the least, but my surprise turned to delight when the person hugging me backed up so I could see her face.

I smiled widely when I saw who it was. "Mona!"

She laughed and nodded before we embraced each other again. The woman was Mona Keating, the younger sister of Paul Keating, my former husband. She had all of her brother's good looks without his duplicitous soul. She had rich, thick, chocolate brown hair that spilled all over her shoulders and down her back and large, blue eyes that seemed like they were perpetually dancing with merriment. Her skin was tanned a few shades darker than mine was, and she was a couple of inches shorter than I was too. Not that anyone noticed. She had an air that made people turn their heads when she walked into a room, regardless of height and stature. The woman practically oozed confidence.

Mona pulled away after a moment to examine me. "Look at you! Your hair!" She reached a hand up to touch it.

I grinned and let her. "I actually had it all cut off before. It's grown back a lot."

"It's really nice! You look good with shorter hair."

"Yeah, but I'm still trying to get it longer. But forget about me, what are you doing here?"

Mona's smile faltered as she said "Paul."

I nodded. "Me too."

We were both quiet for a moment, trying to think of something to say when a baby started crying nearby. Mona's hands flew up to her face and her eyes grew wide. "Oh, gosh, I'll be right back. Stay here!" She rushed off before I had a chance to say anything to her, but whatever I was going to say immediately flew from my mind as she came back pushing a stroller and holding a child that couldn't be more than a year old in her arms. "Irma," she said, walking over to me with the child, "this is Jason Keating. This is my son."

My eyes bulged out of my head. I stared at her. Then at the kid. Then back to her. Then back at the kid. Then back to her. "We have a lot of catching up to do," I finally said.

She grinned and nodded. "You free for lunch?"

"Oh, yes. We have a_ lot_ of catching up to do."

"And I bet you have some things to tell me, too."

Oh, she had no idea…

* * *

Chapter Three is done. And I am so excited to introduce Mona to you guys! I know it ended on kind of an awkward point, but I think the next chapter runs much smoother that way. It just read better to me.

Also, a quick note about Irma being called in for questioning- I actually asked my father and brother, both of whom are attorneys, about the proper method of dealing with that kind of situation and they both told me the same thing. If you are ever called into a police station, (which I sincerely hope you will not be) even if they say you're not a suspect, ALWAYS, ALWAYS bring a lawyer. Also make sure you record them saying that you are not a suspect, because if it isn't on record, they can use it as a loophole in case they ever start to think of you being involved again. I do highly recommend cooperating with the police though. Just take precautions.

Now that my little PSA is over, I hope you all liked the chapter. I thought it was kind of exciting myself. And yes, we will see plenty more of Mona as the story continues, don't you worry.

As always, if you liked the chapter please review it, and I'll see you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

And here's the next chapter! A lot more details about the plot I introduced last chapter are in this one, so I hope you all enjoy!

Also, Irma has a nickname for Mona here that I actually got from a cousin whose name is also Mona. We call her Monie, "Moan-ee" as an affectionate nickname. I just thought I'd give the proper pronunciation because it's a little weird to read it without knowing how to say it.

In no way, shape, or form, do I own TMNT or anything related.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

We went to a small French café several blocks away and got a table in the corner, near the window. Jason sat in one of those child-chair things next to his mother. He was a very cheerful baby, always smiling at something. He giggled a lot too, especially when his mother spoke to him.

The waiter brought us our drinks, and after I took a sip I gave her a meaningful look. "Soooo," I started, "A new mom, huh?"

Mona laughed. "Well, not quite new. He's a year old after all."

"Yeah, but you… a mom!"

"I know, believe me. No one was more surprised than me when it happened."

I took a sip of my cranberry juice, briefly wondering if I should ask, or if I shouldn't. Curiosity won out in the end. "So, um… Jason's father. Is he around? I mean, you don't have to tell me anything if you prefer not to."

"No, no, it's fine. Jason's, ah, father…" Mona massaged her forehead. "It's a little embarrassing. I got drunk one night at a party and, well, Jason here is the result."

I blinked. That didn't seem like Mona at all. She wasn't one to do something like that lightly. "What about the guy? Did you ever see him again? Does he know?"

Mona shook her head. "Not as far as I know. I had never seen the man before in my life. We were introduced at the party, but honestly, I don't even remember his name. Or much of what he looks like. I was really drunk."

"But you hardly drink at all!"

"Well, I was celebrating that night. I got a big promotion at work."

"Really?" I leaned forward excitedly. "At the lab? What is it?"

"Assistant Director." Mona leaned back in her chair, her expression pleased. She was a geneticist, who studied mutations and possible cures. She was very good at it too. I could never keep up with her discussions about it, but she was very good at explaining the basics of her research in a way that people could understand. It was natural that she'd get a promotion so quickly.

"I'm really proud of you, Monie," I said, using my old nickname for her. She gave me a pleased smile and then it faded away as she looked down into her glass of iced tea. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just… it's just this whole thing with Paul."

"Oh, of course. Obviously. I really should have picked up on that…"

She gave me a small grin. "I don't blame you for not caring about him. He was an ass to you. You deserved better."

Mona and I had always had a very strange relationship. When Paul had first introduced me to his twin sister, we had gotten along beautifully. Our personalities just seemed to mesh, even better than mine and Paul's, which really should have been a warning sign, but of course I wasn't paying attention at the time. During my marriage with him, she and I had been nigh inseparable as friends. During the divorce, she supported my side implicitly. Normally that would be a strange thing, but Mona and her brother got along very rarely. They had no parents; the two of them had passed away in a traffic accident when they were very young, and they had little in the way of extended family. You'd think that this would bring the two siblings together, but it couldn't be further from the truth. They barely got along in the best of circumstances, and did their best to avoid one another as best they could.

I smiled sadly at her. "It was my fault. I ignored the warning signs when I was dating him. But that doesn't excuse me not keeping up with you. I should have kept in contact with you better."

"We were both busy and I didn't really keep in contact with you either."

I didn't speak for a minute, and neither did she. Finally, I asked her what I had been meaning to since we came to the restaurant. "Mona, what's happened with Paul?"

She shook her head slowly. "I really don't know. I spoke to him a couple of months ago at Jason's first birthday party. He came with his girlfriend. He didn't act any differently than he ever did. He said a few inappropriate things, hit on a couple of my friends while his girlfriend was in earshot." Sitting back, Mona thought for a moment. "The only time he acted any differently was when he was talking about Jason's blindness with me."

I sat up straighter. "Hold on. Jason is _blind_? When? How? Was it something genetic that you didn't know about? How did you find out?"

"It wasn't hard. Here, see." Mona picked up a spoon and waved in slowly in front of Jason's face. He didn't even react. He stared right past it, out the window, munching on the cheerios the waiter had brought for him. "That was the first big warning sign. All babies who can see follow everything that's in front of their faces. Waving something in front of them and seeing their eyes follow it is a sign of healthy eye activity. But Jason… Jason has no sight. He can't even see shadows." Mona stopped talking. Her expression was one of deep sadness as she reached out a hand to caress Jason's head. Jason gave a content gurgle and reached up to pat the hand that was petting him. It made Mona's grim expression ease somewhat before she pulled her hand back. "It's not genetic. It happened when Jason was only a few months old. He got some bacteria in his eye and the doctor prescribed a new type of eye drop that apparently had great success with other infants. It was a very mild one, safe, he said, so I didn't think too much of it. I was just concerned for Jason. Up until that point, he had shown healthy eye sight. He could track movement, see objects, everything. But I started putting the drops in…"

Mona had to look away and picked up a tissue to blow her nose. I didn't comment on her eyes looking like they had tears in them. "Anyway, I started putting the drops in, and the infection went away, but so did his sight. Within a week I noticed a change in his ability to perceive objects and the like. I took him back to the doctors, and they were horrified. Jason is perfectly fine in every other way. His hearing, his body, all that, but he's just blind now. I've done some research. Other parents who've used it said it worked great. No defects or anything. My baby is the only one."

She was struggling now, and I felt awful for having made her dredge up all this for me. I reached out a hand and covered hers with mine."Monie, you don't have to keep talking about this. I didn't mean to make you remember all this. I'm so sorry."

"No, no, I want to talk about it." Mona's eyes were a little damp, but her gaze was strong. "I really do. I don't have anyone else to discuss it with really. The, ah, chemical in the eye drops that I used, they weren't developed by a medical company. A group called TCRI made it, and I cannot find out what it was originally for, or how the hell it got into eye drops for infants. But Paul… Paul told me at Jason's birthday that he would find out. He promised me that he'd figure everything out and get compensation." She took a steadying breath. "That was the last time I spoke to him. He sent me a text message about a month ago, saying he was getting closer, but after that, nothing. Irma, I… I'm afraid something has happened to him."

"Hey." I took her hand again. "Look, Monie. We both know that as far as I'm concerned, he could be kidnapped by aliens and I wouldn't be too upset. But we also know that Paul is one of the smartest guys out there. Even when he's drunk, he's got a mind like razors. He never did-does," I corrected myself, "anything without a plan. Except for cheating. I don't believe he really thinks that through. But wherever he is, whatever he's doing, I'm sure he's got everything well in hand. You know how much he loved theatrics and all that."

Mona seemed unconvinced. "Yeah, but, he's just gone. Poof. Into thin air. He's never done that before."

"Yeah, but he's not the kind of guy to do that sort of thing without a good reason."

"But that's what I'm worried about! What if his reason is because he was being chased or something?"

I pulled my hand back as the waiter came with our food. We both plastered smiles on our faces and pretended everything was fine until the waiter left. I took a bite of my sandwich as he walked away and then turned back to Mona. "But Mona, why would someone chase him? There's no reason I can think of, unless he's got in with a bad crowd these past few years."

"He's a prosecution lawyer. Maybe he put someone behind bars and they wanted payback. Or maybe it's TCRI itself. You never know."

I gave her an incredulous look. "TCRI? Really? I've heard of it, it was in the news a few days ago. It's a big cooperation. Maybe there was an oversight in the batch of drops that you gave to Jason. Maybe Jason was horribly allergic to something in the drops. I just can't see a large group like that targeting one guy, even if he was intent on prosecuting them. That's actually probably par for the course for those guys. Large companies are almost always in some kind of lawsuit with something or another."

Mona stared straight at me. "Irma, I know what I feel. I don't have facts, I don't have proof, but I just _know_ that Paul is in trouble. You know how often my hunches are right."

I sighed. "Yes, I know very well." It was true. It was her gut instinct that led me to suspect that Paul was having an affair which led to our divorce. Mona had a very keen and rather uncanny sort of insight that gave her great abilities of deduction. Unfortunately they also had a habit of making her overconfident. "But no matter how you feel about it, you can't just go into TCRI and demand to know what they did with your brother, and the police cannot act without proof of some kind. Your hunches work great when you're trying to figure out new ways to manipulate genes, or remembering where someone left their keys, but you can't just use your hunches on something like this. You have to have something to really go on."

Mona scowled at me, but couldn't argue with that. "Look, Monie, if you need help looking for facts or something, just let me know and I'll do my best. But I'm not going to storm a building because of a feeling. It'll just get you into trouble."

She grumbled a little but ultimately agreed. "Maybe I can use your research skills to use and have you find something for me. The library has to have something I can use."

I shifted in my chair. "Well… I don't work at the library anymore. It kind of burned to the ground."

Her eyes widened almost comically. "It what?!"

"But I'm working for an acquisitions group now. My friend April runs it, so it's still a bit research-y."

"Your library _burned down_?!"

"Yeah. That's actually why I got short hair. It got set on fire so I had to cut it all off."

"Irma, what the hell!"

* * *

Our lunch continued for another hour with the two of us catching up with everything that had happened in the past few years. Paul and his unknown circumstances were, for the moment, put aside as we lost ourselves in a long session of catch-up. I told her everything that had happened over the past year and a half (leaving out the turtles and my kidnapping, of course), and she told me several amusing anecdotes about Jason. It was a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon, besides the whole missing ex and sadly blind baby. But Jason was otherwise very happy and hearty, loving it when his mother and I picked him up and played with him a little.

But we both had other things to do that day. We exchanged contact information and said goodbye with a promise of having lunch again soon. My drive back to my apartment was uneventful, other than Gary the Camery starting to make some engine noises. It was understandable though. He was more than ten years old, after all.

When I walked back to the store, the sign on the front door said closed, and I found a note on my desk from April that said she had to go with Casey somewhere and would be back in an hour or so. I settled myself back down in my little office area, and after a moment of thinking about everything that I had to do that day, I decided to let all that stuff wait and went online to look up information about TCRI.

I had heard about the group before Mona had said anything about it. It was a large, fairly new group that had been around for the past four or five years. It had only risen to prominence within the last two, however. Their website said that they were focused mainly on creating new, sustainable energy sources with a small side business of discovering new chemicals and compounds that could be used in medicines, but also with numerous other applications. It was this 'other' application that worried me.

I did this research for about an hour until I heard a loud crash coming from upstairs. My apartment. This was not good. I immediately stood up and went to a table upon which sat a very heavy, somewhat large metal sculpture of the Eiffel Tower. It was half the length of my forearm and weighed at least three pounds. I didn't want to seriously injure anyone, but it could pack a serious punch if I needed to defend myself. I kicked off my heels at the bottom of the stairs before I began my slow ascent up to my apartment, the model held securely in my hands. When I got to my door, I put my hand on the knob and turned it slowly, grateful that it opened without a sound.

When I saw the state of my living room, I had to suppress a large gasp of shock. The place was in shambles. Cupboard doors were flung open, books were pulled from the shelves and lay on the floor. Every drawer had been yanked open and the contents were spilled about the room. My bedroom door was open as well, and I quickly but quietly walked over, the tower held up, ready to bash the intruder on the head. My bedroom was in as much a state as the rest of my room. The mattress had been flipped over, my dresser had been obviously rifled through, and my jewelry box lay on the floor with the contents scattered everywhere. The window was open. I quickly walked over to it. I knew it was locked- I never kept that window unlocked when I was gone, and I saw scratches in the paint around the lock. It had to have been picked. Popping my head out, I gave the street a cursory glance. I saw no one, and no strange cars, so I pulled my head back in and rushed to the bathroom to see if the stranger was in there, but it too was empty. Towels had been pulled out from under the sink and lay in heaps on the floor, but other than that there wasn't much damage in there. But what had the crashing sound been?

I looked back to my bedroom and saw it. The flower pot where I had kept the peach seed from the magical peach a year ago lay shattered on the floor, the dirt spread over the carpet. I could see the top of the seed glowing against the black dirt. It still shone gold. With a cry I ran to the kitchen and quickly grabbed a mixing bowl and rushed back to my bedroom, where I hurriedly picked up handfuls of dirt and tossed them into the bowl before gently picking up the dirt around the seed and placing it in the bowl as well, covering it up. I then brought the bowl to the kitchen and set it securely on the counter before turning around again to see the chaos that currently reigned in my apartment. It was then that I noticed something important.

The box that had been sitting on my coffee table was no longer there. I rushed over to see the box and its contents on the floor. Or rather, what remained of the box. It was torn to shreds. The photo album was laying open on the ground, several photos and pages torn out of it. The books that had been in the box were also shredded to pieces, as though the person who did this was furious about something. And then I noticed. The letters, the ones that I had thought were love letters, the ones that had turned out to be written in code- they were gone. I quickly looked around for them. They weren't under the carpet. They weren't under the sofa. I didn't have to look under the cushions themselves because whoever destroyed my home had the same idea that I had, and had already torn open those cushions.

I sat down on the floor and put my head between my hands taking deep breaths. I had to think about this calmly. Okay. What was missing? The letters. The letters were obviously important. The question was why had they torn up my apartment in the search? The box they had been in had sat on the coffee table the whole day. I hadn't moved it even once. If they had been after that, they could have found them without a problem, unless the person had just gone through the apartment first and seen them last. But that didn't make sense. The package had been completely obvious. It wasn't like I had secreted everything in it away. And it made no sense for the person to find the letters and _then_ rip my place apart. What would that accomplish besides being a serious inconvenience to myself? Of course, that was assuming that whoever did this wanted to be sneaky about it. Maybe they were sending a message, tearing it all up. But it still didn't make sense to me. If the letters had gone missing by themselves, I might have just looked around for them until I gave up, and not noticed anything else.

I decided to put aside the theory that they found the letters right away and then destroyed everything. It seemed very obvious that they had been looking for something, and the letters were the only thing missing. So someone came into my apartment looking for them. They weren't there. They wrecked everything in the search. Then they left. That left the question of what the hell happened to the letters. If they hadn't taken them, it meant that someone else did. That meant two people had been in my apartment searching for the same thing. Probably these two people were not working together; otherwise the mess in my home wouldn't have happened. Who were these two people? There was no way for me to know without looking. I didn't want to look right then. My home, my privacy, had been violated.

I sat there on the ground and took deep, calming breaths. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That would just make it all worse, of course. There was nothing else to do but try to stay calm. I sat there for a good twenty minutes taking deep breaths and thinking calming thoughts before I opened my eyes. The room was still an unholy mess. I slowly stood up and took a closer look at everything. My picture frames were thankfully unbroken. I began picking them up and putting them back on the walls. I flipped the coffee table right side up. The TV hadn't been broken, so I put that back as well. I picked up the scattered cushions and put the ones that weren't ruined back on the sofa. There weren't too many of those. Most of them had been ripped open. Then I went to the kitchen and began picking up the cutlery and dishes that had been tossed to the ground. A lot of them were broken and I had to sweep the shards into a pile. I stared down at the broken pieces and found that I didn't want to sweep them up yet. I leaned against the counter and stared down at the remains morosely, contemplating all the strange, awful, terrible things that had happened to me within the last year and a half.

I'd been shot at, stabbed (twice), kidnapped, threatened, blackmailed into having sex with my worst enemy, almost died, my old apartment was set on fire, and now my new apartment had just been ransacked. This was not how I'd planned to spend my late twenties. Was this going to be my future from now on? A never-ending line of one terrible occurrence after another? God, this was depressing.

With a sigh, I walked away from the mess on the floor and went back to the stairs that went down to the store, and sat down halfway down. I couldn't deal with that mess upstairs right now. I needed to detach myself. I needed to sit down and think of something else for a while. I didn't want to call the police. I didn't want any more strangers up there. At least not right now. I also didn't want to go back to work. I just needed to sit for a while.

A while later, I was still sitting there, still in the midst of an existential crisis and wondering why the hell I put up with all the weird crap around me when I heard someone upstairs. For a moment there I was worried, but then I heard "Oh, god, Irma! Where are you?!" A second voice swore loudly, and said "You look on that side, I'll check out over here!"

Donatello and Raphael. I didn't even want to get up to talk to them, my mood was so black. I heard them running from one room to another, calling out my name, their voices becoming increasingly frantic. With a sigh, I stood up and started walking upstairs again, knowing that they had to know I was okay.

I stood in the front door of my apartment and just waited, not having the energy or will to go back in on my own. If I stood outside the door, I could pretend that it wasn't my apartment that was ruined. It was someone else's. Mine was still wonderfully clean and safe. Mine was still bright, and happy, and cheerful, and in my imagination I could imagine a bo staff in the corner and a pair of strong arms around me-

"IRMA!" I was jarred out of my mental imaginings by the voice calling my name. Donatello was standing in the doorway, staring at me, his eyes wide. The next thing I knew, his arms were wrapped around me tightly and he was pulling me into the apartment, tight against him, and all I could do was wrap my arms around him as best I could. My face was pressed against his neck, and I breathed in his wonderful, comforting, familiar scent.

"You found her?! Where?!" And then Raphael was in the room, his eyes staring into mine. I could see the faintest edges of fear in them- fear for me, and then the worry disappeared in a visible flood of relief that spread through his body, letting him relax out of his aggressive stance.

And then I knew why I put up with all the crazy shit that happened around me. Because no matter how insane things were in my life, it was all worth it if I got to spend just one more day with these amazing people- the ones who had welcomed me into their family and loved me, despite all my shortcomings. And even if my apartment was well and truly wrecked, at least I had the strong arms around me.

Donnie kept holding me close to him and I softly kissed his cheek. I could feel his whole body trembling just a tiny bit, from adrenalin or concern or both, I couldn't be sure. "I'm alright, Don," I whispered against his skin. "I'm alright. I'm just fine. It's okay."

He rested his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. "No it isn't. Your home has been vandalized. You could have been seriously hurt."

"But I'm not." With that, I leaned in and kissed him softly on the mouth. "And now you're here, and everything is fine."

He pulled back away from the kiss and gave me a hardened look. "Why do you keep saying that? It's not fine. Just because you weren't hurt does not make everything fine. What would have happened if you had been in here? You could have been attacked. You could have been…" He didn't finish the sentence. I kissed him again in an attempt to comfort him. Donnie made a sound that wasn't happy. The purple-clad turtle said nothing else after that, but it was clear that he wasn't done with the subject.

"Who did it, Irms?" asked Raph, the aura of anger creeping back into his voice. "Did they come after you? Did you see them?"

I shook my head. "I came back from lunch with a friend to find the place like this. I didn't see anyone, and honestly I'm happy about that."

Raphael grunted, and then Don volunteered to help me clean up my apartment as best we could. Raph didn't volunteer out loud, but he helped pick things up. We had to vacuum the place after everything was off the ground, and the things that weren't torn or ripped were put back where they belonged. We made a list of everything that was broken or ruined and I put it in my wallet for later.

When Don asked what had happened, I gave him my theory on the missing letters that were actually computer code. "There's nothing else they could have been looking for," I told him. None of my jewelry was taken, or my electronics. The box they were in was ripped to shreds. Literally nothing is missing but those. I mean, they destroyed a bunch of stuff, but they didn't take anything."

"They must have really, really wanted those letters," Don said, rubbing his chin as he contemplated. "Good thing I brought them down to the lab earlier."

I stared at him. "You took the letters!"

"Only to decode them. I meant to tell you when I came over earlier, but then this happened." He gestured to the apartment. It had been cleaned up, but the signs of attack were still there. A thought occurred to me and I slapped my forehead.

"I'm an idiot. I should have called the police to come investigate. They won't get anything now that we've cleaned it up."

"They wouldn't find anything anyway," Don consoled me. "I did some examination while we cleaned, and there were no fingerprints, DNA, indication of gender or height. Nothing. Obviously someone wanted something from here, but it's like they were a ghost. Nothing is left to indicate anything."

"'Sides," inputted Raph," if they did come, they'd probably find some really weird DNA, and that would just bring up more questions than anything."

I frowned and gave a small shiver. He was right of course. That was the last thing I wanted, but I hadn't considered it until just now. There probably was a great deal of DNA that could be found in the apartment if someone searched hard enough. Despite this reasoning, it was still terrible feeling unsafe in my own home. Don noticed and wrapped an arm around me. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll set up a security system in here as soon as I can."

"You haven't already?"

He shrugged. "I didn't want you to feel like I was barging into your privacy."

I gave him a small smile and then sighed. "You have my full permission to do whatever it takes to make this place safe again."

"Will do. And in the meantime, you're coming down to the Lair with me until I'm done."

"Really? The guys won't mind?"

"Your place is completely trashed and you're shaking." Raphael straightened from picking up some broken plate shards form the floor. "Even if they did have a problem, which they won't, I'd still tell them to jump off a bridge."

I looked down at my arms. Yep. He was right. I was actually shaking. "Huh," I said. "I did not notice that before."

My favorite turtle did not reply, and instead went to my bedroom closet and pulled out a small overnight bag. "If you go get your toothpaste and stuff, I'll get your clothes."

Some of the worry fell from my shoulders. At least there were some things I could rely on all the time. "Pack like four or five changes. I might be over for a while."

* * *

Well, this chapter ends on an exciting note! No actual fighting yet, but still, it's a taste of what's to come.

I have to admit, when I first thought about including Jason into the mix, I was somewhat iffy on it. But when I started thinking about the overall plot, it made perfect sense to me. Plus I plan to have some VERY interesting scenes including him in future chapters. I hope I don't annoy too many people with the baby-inclusion.

If you have any suggestions about how I can improve my writing, or just want to say that you liked it, please let me know via a review, which are always fun to read and respond to!


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks for all your feedback about the last chapter, guys! I have to say I was surprised that you commented more on Jason than on Irma's apartment being looted, but… maybe I shouldn't be surprised. It's probably my fault; everyone is used to Irma's apartments being trashed. Poor Irma, going through all that furniture. But I'm SO glad you all liked Jason's introduction!

I came up with his idea when I was trying to think of a reason why Paul and Mona would get involved with TCRI, and what better reason than a child? Plus… cute baby/turtle moments in the future. I know, spoiler, but really, you have to know its coming. Eventually.

But moving on from those delightful images, heeeeere's the next one!

* * *

**Chapter Five**

When I woke up the next morning, I found myself in a room filled with bookshelves, old chemistry sets, and a couple of desks overflowing with half-filled notebooks and paper with hurriedly written scribbles all over them. Even the nightstand sitting next to the bed had a tower of science texts stacked precariously high, with my glasses perched at the top of them. With a yawn I reached up and grabbed them from their perch, noting with some amusement that if the books had fallen they would have smacked me right in the face- not a good way to wake up. Donnie was already up and about. I had woken up for a few seconds earlier that morning when he kissed me on the forehead and gone out to train. I fell asleep as soon as he was out the door, but it was just as well since I was still exhausted from the day before. But when I opened my eyes to see the time on the clock Donnie had over his desk, I saw that it was time for me to get up as well.

I sat up in bed with yet another yawn, stretching my arms over my head before lazily sliding out of bed. My clothes had been put away in my designated drawers of Donatello's dresser which sat in the corner, and I quickly dressed in a pair of loose, black cotton pants and a blue t-shirt before leaving the room.

Donatello's room- and his brothers' rooms for that matter- weren't actual bedrooms per se. Their Lair was located in the sewers of New York, in the abandoned train stations that had been sealed off decades before. Their rooms were actually four different passenger cars taken from an old train and abandoned years ago, but it was good for them to have their own areas to personalize and keep private. So far I'd only been in Don's and Mikey's cars. Mikey's was filled with comic books, skateboards, various action figures, and a desk full of doodles. It was like a giant ten year old lived in it. Donatello's room was filled to the brim with science things and the occasional Dungeons and Dragons guide book. Whenever I stayed over, I almost always slept in Don's room. Occasionally, however, Splinter felt that I was a bit of a distraction when he wanted his son's complete attention, and had me stay in one of the three guest rooms that they had in the Lair. The guest rooms were really just rooms that at one time were private offices or closets, but they were always kept neat and clean. Also the beds in them were bigger. I loved sleeping snuggled up with Don, but it was nice to be able to stretch out if I wanted to. And you could do a lot more on a larger bed, as I had discovered one night when Don snuck in after everyone else was asleep. As I walked past my designated spare room, I thought that maybe I would try to take a nap in there later. And if Donatello wanted to keep me company, well, I wouldn't stop him.

The kitchen and family area was located together in the largest part of the Lair. The TV sat in front of a large sofa, riddled with wires from various video game consoles. In a different corner, several training dummies that had seen their share of use over the years hung from the ceiling in a sort of oddly macabre way. Usually at least one of the turtles would be practicing on those, but today the entire room was empty as I walked to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. I opened the cupboard doors to find the bright red tea kettle that I had given Master Splinter for Christmas, and filled it with water from the sink. After I set it on the stove to boil, I pulled out some bread to make toast with and some jam from the fridge. A few minutes later, I had a nice little breakfast of toast and jam waiting on the table for me when the kettle began whistling.

"Ah, one of my favorite sounds in the world." I turned around to see Master Splinter walk towards me, one hand behind his back and the other holding his cane. "I trust you slept well last night, child?"

I smiled at him. "I slept very well, Master Splinter, thank you. Would you like some tea? Or can I make you something else?"

He sat at the table, letting his cane rest against the chair beside him. "Tea would be marvelous, Irma. I believe we have some new leaves in the green jar on the counter." I walked over to it and pulled out a couple of tea bags. "Where're the boys?" I asked, handing one to him.

"They're out patrolling the sewers and doing their chores. One of them thought that they could get away with hiding things under the furniture. As though I didn't see them try that when they were three." I grinned, just imagining Mikey's sheepish face as Splinter uncovered a pile of dirty dishes and old magazines behind the bookshelf. "I should actually go check on him now," Splinter said as he stood up. "You know how Raphael gets without supervision. We will talk about the incursion in your home when we are all gathered together."

I didn't have any response to this as he left. I was trying to wrap my mind around the image of Raphael even noticing dirty dishes, let alone going through the trouble of hiding them. These amusing thoughts sat in my brain as I sipped at my tea until I saw two figures walking into the Lair from the sewer entrance. Leonardo and Michelangelo greeted me cheerfully as they walked over to the table, black smudges on their arms and faces. I grinned at them and sipped my tea. "Got into a wrestling match with a truck engine or something?"

"Or something," Leo nodded before going to wash his hands off in the sink. "We went to get some scrap from the junk yards. Those places are abandoned during the day and night, so we can usually go whenever we want."

I decided to bite my tongue and hold back my comments about reckless behavior. I had spoken to all the brothers about their daylight adventures, and while they had all assured me that they knew what they were doing, I knew that all it took was one cell phone camera to snap a picture and put it up for the whole world to see on any number of websites. A photo taken in the daylight was much clearer than one taken at night. They seemed to think that I had little to no confidence in their abilities to stay hidden. I had perfect confidence in their abilities; what I lacked was confidence in their ability to keep a photo offline. But there was no point in me bringing it up. The more I pushed, the more they pushed back. While I knew I had Master Splinter's support in my way of thinking, he kept quiet on the subject. He really only said things when they did something wrong or asked directly for advice. I guess he'd had much longer to know how his son's minds worked than I did, but it was frustrating just the same. But instead of saying anything about my worries, I asked about my missing boyfriend. "Isn't Donnie with you guys?"

A large hand landed on my shoulder with a gentle squeeze, and someone kissed the top of my head. "Hey, beautiful." Tilting my head up, a smiling, purple masked face smiled down at me. "Sleep well?"

"Yup. Hope I didn't kick you or anything in my sleep last night."

"Nah, you slept like a rock. I was surprised you managed to sleep at all, given what happened yesterday." He gave me a concerned look-over. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yes, dear, I'm fine." I teased him a little about his protective nature, but I loved it when he showed concern over me. It meant he was thinking of me. "Seriously, I'll be okay. How was training for you guys?"

Don shook his head and pulled out a chair next to me. "I didn't train. Master Splinter let me go back to your apartment to set up extra security measures and double check for clues. Then I came back and started punching in the code I found on those letters of yours."

Mikey, who had been rummaging through the fridge, walked over to us with a piece of jerky hanging out of his mouth. "What letters?"

"Just old letters," I explained. "When we opened them, they weren't letters, they were computer codes."

"Oooooh… So is it like a spy thing? Are you gonna go undercover with one of those close-up-mirror thingies?"

"It's called a _magnifying glass_, Mike," Don said, rolling his eyes. "And no, she is not going 'undercover'. "At least, not until I've figured out the whole thing. So far there isn't enough decoded for me to understand."

I took a bite of toast and cocked my head at him. "How much is decoded now?"

"Practically nothing. I scanned the pages and I'm running them through a translating program. But there's a lot to translate. Could be a while."

I shrugged. "I'm not in a big hurry. I'm telling April I'm not going back to work until she's got some kind of body guard or something."

"I already spoke to her," Leonardo said, joining us at the table and pouring himself a cup of tea. "She's fine with you working from home for the next couple of days until you feel comfortable going back."

"That's nice of her. How is she liking Germany?"

"She said Dusseldorf was great when there weren't thugs trying to get at the same painting as her."

I sighed. As much as I had tried to get her to stay in town for an extended length of time, April had insisted on getting the last of her jobs out of the way before we started any serious planning. So far we had the kind of flowers that she wanted, and the flavor of cake she liked. She had changed her mind six times about the style of wedding dress that she wanted, and I was starting to think she was having wedding jitters. I had no idea why she was so nervous about it. The wedding was the easy part- marriage was the challenge. Hell, my weddings were the highlights of both my marriages, which was a sad statement in of itself. Not that Casey was being any easier. Since all his best guy friends were mutant reptiles that would cause a panic if seen in public, he was without a Best Man, and thus it fell to me to help with his wedding preparations as well. Luckily for me, my duties regarding him were miniscule compared to what I had to do with April. The turtles were having a bachelor party with him, and were taking care of his Groom's Cake, so all I had to deal with was his tuxedo. Which he still didn't have, because he staunchly refused to wear one. I had never before fully appreciated the difficulties of a wedding planner's life until I had to deal with them myself. I was definitely not cut out for the job. I was about to kill the would-be-spouses with my bare hands, and they were my best friends.

The brothers and I sat around chatting for a little bit before they stood up and told me they needed to get working on various things. "You can work from the lab if you want to," Don told me. "I'll be working in there too, but you know how I get when I've got a project." I did indeed. Donnie was brilliant, and had a tendency to tune everything else out when working on something that required all his focus. It was one of the things I admired about him.

I thanked him for his offer, but I found that after the stressful events of the day before, I just wanted to relax and get some of the stress out of my system. I found myself on the sofa in the main room of the Lair, laying down with my head propped up and a book in my lap. I spent the next forty minutes in this delightful position before my cell phone, which I still had with me in case April called, rang. I picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Irma Langenstein speaking."

"_Hi, Irma_!"

I sat up. "Mona! To what do I owe this delight?"

"_You owe it to the fact that I have a new job_!"

I was surprised. When I had last spoken to her, I had gotten the impression that she was very happy with her current position. "Really? Wow. When did this happen? I thought you liked your old job?"

"_I did! But I found an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up_."

"Huh! Interesting. Well, what is?"

She took on a tone that was both devious and proud at the same time. "_I have a job at the TCRI Research Center as a Lead Researcher_."

Oh, God.

I couldn't keep the outrage out of my voice hissed into the phone, "Mona, are you _insane_? You quit your job to join TCRI? What is _wrong_ with you? What the hell are you _thinking_?"

"_Nothing is wrong with me! And for your information, I'm thinking about using my position to dig up all kinds of information on this corporation and exposing its dirty secrets to the entire world_!"

"You ARE insane! You're completely out of your mind! Do you have any idea of what the legal ramifications of doing that would be? You had to have signed some sort of document about that when you took the job! Plus, they might not even have anything for you to find! You might have left a great career behind for a false lead!"

"_Geeze, Irma, I thought you'd be happy for me_." She sounded very offended. But I couldn't stop talking, even to spare my friend's feelings. I was thinking of her wellbeing.

"Mona, this is not something to be happy about. You're pursuing something without having a real lead other than your gut instincts. You're trying to dig up company secrets that could land you in prison, and furthermore, you have no connections within the company. And that's ignoring what could happen to Jason!"

"_What the heck could happen to Jason, Irma? He's smiling, he's happy, I really don't know why you brought him up_."

"What happens if you get arrested or something, Mona? If you get caught, he gets sent to Child Services. Everything that you do has an effect on him, too!"

"_I'm doing this for him, Irma! And besides, it's already done. There's nothing I can do about it now_."

"You could quit and try to get your old job back."

"_That is not an option_."

"Mona!" Her name came out sounding like MO-naaaaa.

"_Sorry, Irma. I've made up my mind_." I sighed. Her stubbornness was both an asset and a weakness, and was also something I both admired and hated. When she got an idea into her head, it stayed there, for good or for ill. Usually it was for good. But this time I had the sinking feeling that Mona had thrown herself into shark-infested water with a bloody knee and no life preserver. "Look," I said, trying to reason with her, "at least promise me you'll be careful. Don't take any risks or do anything to piss people off. For Jason's sake if nothing else."

Mona's voice softened. "_I promise_." She waited a beat and then continued. "_I know you're worried about me, Irma. But this is something I feel like I need to do. For my own ease of mind, if nothing else. If I don't find anything, then fine. But I can't just ignore this. Not with Paul disappearing and Jason's eyes_."

"Alright," I finally relented. "But for the record, I still think this is a bad idea."

"_Noted_," Mona said. "_I'll call you if I find anything_."

"Great," I said glumly, and had the sinking feeling that I would soon find myself in yet another adventure- and that much closer to getting gray hairs. I said my goodbyes to Mona over the phone, and then gave a large sigh. I slumped back against the sofa, my frustration clear on my face. At that moment, I just wanted to be alone with my frustrations, but I was soon joined by a certain hot-headed terapin.

Raphael had come in after the others had left, and collapsed onto the sofa beside me, making me bounce a little in my seat with his own substantial weight. He sat back into the plush cushions of the sofa as well with a relaxed sigh, a soda in his hand. I glanced over at him. Whatever he had been up to before must have been a great workout, because he seemed to be calm as could be right now. It was a bit odd to see him like this, not because he was always loud and aggressive, but because he almost always carried an air of being at least slightly tense. When he was as tranquil as this, it was because he was either exhausted or on painkillers. I was hoping it was the first.

He knew that I was watching him, of course. Ninjas are good like that. He turned his head to me and cocked an eyebrow. Er, eyeridge. "See something you like?"

I decided to deflect the question. "What's got you so chilled out?"

He shrugged. "Had a really good work-out last night. Got to patrol alone and I took out a bunch of real slime-bags. Still kinda tired I guess." He lifted his soda up and took a swig. "What's got you all worked up?"

The frown on my face became more pronounced. "A friend of mine is doing something really, really stupid."

"Yeah? What kind of stupid?"

"Like walking into a Foot Clan establishment without proper ID or any real plan."

Raph smirked. "Sounds like my kind 'a guy."

"Girl. It's a girl."

"Even better." He began to regard me curiously. "Y'know, we never hear you talk about your human friends besides April and Casey. This is the first time I've heard of another one."

I gave him a slight grin. "Come on, Raph. Who'd be crazy enough to put up with me?"

"I would." His answer came a little too quickly, but his expression and voice were neutral. I chose not to pursue after that comment.

"Her name is Mona. I haven't talked about her because I haven't seen her in years, since my divorce."

"Just didn't feel like getting out?"

"No… It was a bit… weird. I mean, I was married to her brother, and then I called him a total-"

He choked on his drink. "You," he broke off to cough. "You're still friends with your ex's sister?"

"Paul was an ass, and we both knew it. He was- is," I corrected myself, "about as good a brother as he was a husband."

"Still haven't heard anything yet, huh?"

I shook my head. "I honestly couldn't care less, really. I know I should. I mean, I was married to the guy for two years, after all. But he was just so awful. I mean, he was all charming before we got together, but then he got all sexist and chauvinistic, not to mention the fact that he kept sleeping around behind my back. Not that I knew about that until towards the end, but seriously! And did I ever tell you he wanted me to go BLOND? I mean, really. Me, _blond_."

The turtle grinned. "You're more upset that he wanted you to dye your hair than him cheating on you?"

"Oh, no, I threatened to castrate him in court over the affairs."

"Good. The guy was a dick." His voice had turned slightly dangerous at this last comment, but it turned light again as he continued speaking. "At least you're with a good guy now. Or at least a decent one. Donnie talks too much about things that no one else knows."

I grinned. "I think it's adorable when he talks to me about those sorts of thing."

Raphael grinned teasingly. "Right, 'cause you're a dweeb too." He laughed when I threw a pillow at him. He sobered up after that though. "But hey, about your friend… Look, I don't know this chick, obviously, but if you're friends with her, she's probably pretty awesome."

I nodded without hesitation. "She is."

"Alright then. Just have faith in her. She's gonna do it anyway. Just trust that she has some idea of what she's doing." His gaze didn't leave mine as he spoke, and I knew he was speaking with utter honesty regarding this. "It might be a dumb idea. But if she isn't gonna listen, then just do what you can to help if she needs it. Trust me, I've had lots of people tell me not to do things, and it just makes me wanna do it even more. If you give her time, she'll probably come around on her own."

I let his words sink in. He was right about one thing- telling Mona not to do something just encouraged her to do it even more. She wasn't stupid, just stubborn. Not unlike someone else I knew. I gave Raph a fond smile and leaned over, resting my head briefly on his shoulder. "Thanks, Raph. I appreciate you giving me advice."

He gave me a brief, one armed hug and then we pulled away. "Anything for my favorite sis." His smile twisted ever so slightly when he said the word sis, but I didn't doubt his sincerity. He ruined the moment when he then told me "Now go make me a sandwich, that's your job now."

* * *

And here we see the impetuous of Mona, in its natural habitat… that doesn't actually make any sense, I just went with the flow of how I was feeling.

I wanted to add some Irma-Raph bonding in here; this story is told from Irma's perspective, of course, and all of the brothers are important to her (especially her Lavender Lover, as I like to call him), but this story has a special focus on Raphael and his development. When I first wrote out this chapter, there was no conversation between she and Raphael whatsoever, nor was he in the last chapter, so I had to do a little bit of re-writing to draw some of the focus back to him. I'm going to try to keep it so that you get a good build-up with him as the story goes on, without losing sight of the fact that Irma is telling the story, and she might not necessarily be seeing or doing things that have to do with him.

ANYWAY, the excitement is really going to ramp up, and you guessed it, it starts right about now. Keep your arms and legs within the boundaries of the chair at all times, lest you be blown away by its awesomeness. See you for the next chapter!

Also, reviews are good. I do like me some reviews.

Ho


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys! Back again! There's not much to say about this chapter, except that it was fun to write. It's a little cute, but in ways you probably won't see coming. You'll see when you read it!

Sorry it's taking a long time to update, but I promise you it isn't because I don't want to. I just don't have as much time to sit down and write out several pages at a time like I did with Peaches, Puzzles and Problems. But I do have the story plot written out and I will have it all done without hopefully too much of a terrible delay in between each chapter. Thanks so much for your patience and wonderful reviews!

I don't own TMNT. If I did, Irma would be a main character, as she should be now.

* * *

**Chapter Six**

I moved back into my apartment about a week after Mona's phone call to me. Donatello had done a complete scan of my apartment and had installed his own security devices to keep me safe, which actually made me feel really good, although it was still very creepy to know that someone had been in my home and rooted through my things. I had to buy an entirely new sofa since my old one was ripped to pieces, and a lot of dishes and such to replace the ones that were shattered. But I felt protected when Donnie came into my apartment and showed me the things he had installed for security, many of which were highly complicated. Like the one that recorded the patterns of peoples foot-falls. Anyone who regularly visited the apartment would be logged in the system as a non-threat, but anyone who intruded, who's patterns were not in the system, would have a nasty surprise coming to them.

When I told him I thought that might be just a tad overboard (by which he could tell I meant completely paranoid), he stubbornly refused to compromise. "If anything, _you_ aren't taking this seriously enough," he said to me, while fidgeting with some wires. "You could have been seriously injured, and I refuse to just sit by and let this place be invaded by god knows who and what."

I grumbled a little bit, but I couldn't argue too much with his line of thinking. "As long as you promise to take them out if nothing serious happens in the next few weeks."

"We can talk about it."

With a sigh, I cast my eyes about the living room, and couldn't help but admire how cleverly he had hidden all his little devices. "Have to say though, I'm glad you didn't put any cameras in here."

"I have to admit I was tempted."

"Ew," I made a face. "I love you, Don, but I don't think I'd want you to have a live video feed of me twenty-four-seven."

"Oh, I would have just put them in some… strategic places." The way he said the last two words had me looking at him curiously, and when I saw the sexy smirk cross his face, I knew just what 'strategic places' he was thinking of.

"You could put them in there," I said easily. "Or… you could come see the places yourself."

"Yes, I think I like that idea better," he said, nodding his head. "But maybe you should show them to me now, just so I know we're thinking of the same spots." I laughed, took his hand, and my mind was happily occupied with other thoughts besides the break-in for the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

About two weeks after I moved back, I got another call from Mona at about eight in the morning. I was in my kitchen making a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast when I heard my cell phone ring. I picked it up without looking at the person calling and was pleasantly surprised to hear my friend on the other end.

"Hey, Mona," I said, pulling out a piece of bread. "What can I do for you?"

"_I need you to do me a favor_," she said. "_My sitter just called in sick, and I have to go into work today. Would you mind watching Jason for me, just for this afternoon? He's really good and you just have to give him some food and make sure he doesn't eat his toys_."

"Sure, I don't mind," I told her. I liked kids. Yeah, the diaper changing wasn't too enjoyable and neither were the times they had tantrums, but children were fun for the most part. "Do you need me to pick him up at your apartment?"

"_Oh, that would be so great if you could. And if you have to run errands or something today, it's fine if you take him with you. Like I said, he's very sweet_."

"Its fine, Monie, don't worry about it, I've watched plenty of kids before. Most of them survived."

"_Ha, ha, ha. But seriously I really do appreciate you doing this_."

"My pleasure." I fought back the temptation to bring up the fact that I thought she should quit her job again, and decided it was better to let it go for now. "Just text me your address and I'll be right over."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, I was at the front door to Mona's apartment. I knocked and she let me in to a nicely furnished, decently spaced place that obviously had a young child living there. Mona was already dressed for the workday looking very professional, and I couldn't help but ask how she was enjoying her work. "You know, I actually like it a lot," she said, pulling a pre-made salad out of the fridge for her lunch. "It's too bad they're baby-poisoners." Again, the urge to remind her that it was only Jason who had an adverse reaction to the medicine danced on my lips, but I knew this was a bad time for it, so I kept my mouth shut. Instead I just remarked, "That's fantastic," and left it at that.

We chatted while she was getting ready to head out the door. Neither of us had heard anything about Paul, Jason still wasn't walking quite yet, Mona had to put out a fire in the lab the other day, and we still disagreed on whether or not broccoli was the hair grown from the armpit of the Devil (my words, not hers. I still despised her favorite vegetable). She finished getting Jason's bag together and handed it to me as we walked out the door together. "I should be done with work around five," she said, "and like I said, it's perfectly fine with me if you have things to do and need to take him with you. I mean, use your common sense of course."

"No gun ranges, adult toy stores, or prisons, got it."

She rolled her eyes at me but laughed anyway. She helped me set the child-seat into the back of my car, and then we went our separate ways. She told me she'd call me whenever she got off, so I just made sure Jason was comfortable and drove back home so I could do some work in the office- while supervising Jason of course. While driving back, however, I got another call and answered it. "Hello?"

"_Irma, its Donnie_."

"Hey, babe, what's up?"

"_Nothing too big. I've just finished translating some of the documents into something readable, and I thought you might want to know about what I found_."

"Oh, great! That's exciting!"

"_I thought you'd be happy about it. But look, I think you might want to see this for yourself. It's really hard to describe over the phone_."

I instinctively opened my mouth to say yes, but then I remembered that I had Jason in the back. I argued with myself for a moment as to whether or not I should take him. After all, they did live underground in the sewer system, although in a clean section. But still… Then again, with the new entrance, I could avoid all that, and Mona had said I could take Jason with me if I needed to run errands. "Yeah, sure," I finally said. "I'll be there in a bit."

It took me a little longer to get down there, what with Jason and his large, unwieldy bag, but I got to the Lair without too much trouble. Jason, true to his mother's word, gurgled happily and flapped his arms about occasionally.

When the elevator doors dinged open, I walked into the Lair to see Mikey and Raphael engaged in a serious fight on one of their Halo games, and I came and sat next to them on the couch, wondering how long it would take them to notice that I had a baby with me. Or that I was even there.

Of course they noticed me right away, even playing. "Hey, Irms," they simultaneously, and continued their game. "Hey guys," I said, and Jason chose that moment to let out a happy little screech. That got their attention. They both immediately stopped playing and looked over with wide eyes. It was hilarious.

"What," choked out Raphael after a moment, "is that?"

"It's a BABY!" Michelangelo jumped up excitedly and rushed over to me to get a good look at the infant in my lap. "Oh, my gosh, you've got a baby! Where'd you get it? Is it a boy or girl? What's its name? Can we keep it?"

"I'm watching him for a friend, he's a boy and his name is Jason, and no, we have to give him back to his mother."

"Awww…" Mikey sat back looking a little dejected, but quickly bounced back and sat forward, studying Jason intently with a big smile on his face. Raphael was still staring at the baby with wide eyes. I smiled at Mikey. "Do you want to hold him?"

He gasped delightedly. "Can I really?"

"As long as you promise to be careful, yes."

"Cross my heart and hope to die!" and proceeded to do so enthusiastically.

"Alright, come sit on the couch again." Mikey quickly shoved Raphael over and sat down right next to me, holding out his arms. "Okay, put your hands under his arms… Yes, like that. Make sure you've got him, there you go! Looking good!" Mikey sat there with the baby in his lap, and a huge smile on his face. "Wow…" he said. "So this is what it's like."

Raphael finally spoke, still looking at Jason. "We've, uh, never seen a kid down here."

A new voice broke in from behind us. "At least not for many years." We all turned our heads to see Splinter had spoken, and Leonardo was standing beside him.

"Hi, Master Splinter," I said. "A friend asked me to watch him for the afternoon, and then Don wanted me to come see something."

"It is fine, Irma." He walked closer, examining Jason as he did so. He finally stopped a few feet away and cocked his head slightly to the side. "There is something… missing, I believe."

I nodded. "Yes. He's blind."

Splinter gave a knowing nod, but the boys stared at me. "That really sucks," said Raphael with genuine sympathy.

"It might not be so bad," Leo said, approaching. "They say people who lose one sense get stronger in their others."

"Still," said Mikey, letting Jason pat him all over the face with his chubby baby hands, "It'll be hard for the little guy."

That's when Donatello came into the room and saw us all crowded around the baby. "Irma… Is there something you need to tell me?"

I laughed and stood up. "Can you guys watch him while I speak to Donnie?"

Splinter nodded. "I will make sure they don't do anything too silly."

The others began to protest that they would do such a thing, and I walked off with Don, explaining the situation to him. We came to his lab and I pulled up a chair beside his, looking at his findings on the screen. What he had translated looked mostly like…

"Chemical formulas," Donnie said, completing my thought. "You see how they're laid out? It's like chemistry equations. These," he pointed them out, "are different chemicals, and calculations on how they'll react or have reacted."

"Huh," I said. "So what does that mean?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. And that's because all these equations are built around one chemical that I cannot identify."

I gaped at him. "You can't identify it? You?"

"Yeah, I know! It's driving me crazy! I've checked every recent science periodical, I've looked through all my chemistry books, I even tried to see if it was something that was discovered and kept secret, but no. It's not a chemical that has ever been seen on the face of this planet. I mean, I don't even understand the composition formula." He waved an irritated hand at the screen. "Irma, this makes no sense to me at all. This chemical," and he pointed it out to me, "should not exist. I'm not saying that because I'm frustrated, but it literally should not exist on this planet. There are no chemicals that I've seen that could possible make that. It should not exist." He shook his head again and gave an aggravated sigh.

"So what does that mean?" I asked, watching him curiously. Donnie shook his head. "I have no idea. Maybe they've discovered something that no one else knows. I don't see how they could have created it, because it would be in the formula. I just don't know."

"That's… incredibly weird."

"You're telling me."

"Well, did you find anything else?"

He pressed a button on the screen and another one popped up, gibberish with letters and numbers all strung together. "This. It looks like it might be an actual document of some kind, but it's not translated fully, as you can see. Right now I can't make head or tails of it."

I turned to him and put my arms around his shoulders. "I know you're busy and you didn't have to do this for me. But I truly appreciate it."

He smiled back at me and put an arm around my waist. "My pleasure. I like doing things for you."

I grinned and gave him a peck on the lips before pulling my arms away. "I should probably get back to the main room. I left your brothers and father with the baby."

"Maybe we should run there."

* * *

Fortunately, when we came back to the main room, it was still in one piece, and Jason…

… was sitting on the floor right next to Raphael. I rubbed my eyes beneath my glasses and then looked again. My sort-of-brother-in-law, the self-proclaimed (and silently acknowledged by everyone) badass, was sitting on the floor, playing with a one year old child. Donnie seemed to be just as shocked. I could not look away from the sight before me.

Raphael sat cross-legged on the carpet, with Jason laying on his stomach in front of him. Raph was playing a game with him. Every few seconds, Raph would gently lay a finger on a part of Jason. His hand, his arm, or his head, and Jason would reach up to touch the finger. It was very simple, but it seemed to delight the baby to no end. The air was full of his happy giggles and burbling words. And Raphael had a gentle smile on his face that I'd never seen before. I leaned over slightly to Don and whispered "What is this? What is happening?"

He whispered back to me, "I don't know, but I'm kind of afraid to move."

"Let me just check with you… That _is_ Raphael, right?"

"Uh, bulky, green, wears red, has a chip on his shell and shoulder… That's him."

"… Does he… does he _like_ kids?"

"It would appear so. At least this one." At that, we fell silent, taking in the scene before us. For some reason, seeing them together made me feel something I couldn't put into words. Perhaps maternal? But it wasn't that. Don must have picked up something of what I felt, and put an arm around my shoulders, drawing me close to him. I responded by placing my hand over the one that lay on my shoulder.

We stood there for a good sixty seconds, enjoying the tranquility that seemed to permeate the air. Then Mikey came rushing back into the room, immediately breaking up the scene in front of us. Oh, well. "I FOUND SOME TOYS!" In his arms, Mikey had several action figures, all of which had very small extra parts to it. I immediately rushed forward. "NO! No, Mikey! No Lego pieces!"

* * *

I had planned on taking Jason home right after talking to Donnie. But the guys were having so much fun playing with him that I decided to stay for a few more hours. I supervised at all times, making sure he was comfortable and happy. After a while, they tuckered Jason out, and he fell asleep on Leo's lap. Leo seemed both uncomfortable and delighted by this at the same time.

Donnie and I sat next to each other on the sofa, silently enjoying being with everything. Things were mostly quieted down now. Splinter had gone to meditate, Mikey was also asleep on the floor with the baby, and Raphael, having been embarrassed at being seen in such a soft moment before, left. At least that's what I assumed. He didn't say anything about it, but from the blush on his face, that seemed a sure enough bet.

I had my head laying against Donnie's shoulder, a soft smile on my face as I watched Leo trying not to get fidgety with Jason on his lap. A sigh of contentment escaped my lips. Donatello, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly said something that made me look at him with wide eyes. "Do you regret this?"

"Regret what?"

He looked at me with his amazing dark eyes, a contemplative gaze in them. "There's so much I can't give you, Irma. I want to give you everything, but I… I can't." He gestured towards himself, as though trying to make me notice the fact that he was a mutant, like I didn't already know. "I wish I could give you what you deserve. A wedding, like April's. A great house with rooms full of books. But especially kids." He looked towards Jason again. "You would be such an amazing mother, Irma. I wish I could give you that much. Do you regret that? That we can't have children together."

I didn't respond to him at first, instead choosing to bring my lips to his in a deep kiss. When I pulled away, I rested my hand on his cheek. "No. I do not regret it. Do I like kids? Yes. Would I like to have kids? Sure. Am I heartbroken that I can't have them? No. I can tell you what I would regret. Not being with you. What matters most to me is you."

The frown on his face turned to a smile as I spoke and he kissed me on the nose. "Same here."

"It better be."

He laughed and spoke again after a minute. "We could adopt."

I didn't say anything, letting it sink in. Well, the first issue with that was that_ I_ could adopt. Not him. Technically he didn't exist. The second was… if I adopted, I would be raising a child in the Hamato family, with all that entailed. That included ninja training, battles with other ancient ninja clans, fighting off criminals, and whatever they else they tangled with. Could I take a child, give it my name, and then bring that child into the world of the Hamato ninja turtles? I loved them dearly, more than my own life, but I was an adult. I chose them myself. I wasn't sure if it was right to bring a child into this world. Jason wouldn't remember this, but if he were older, there was no way I would have brought him down here. Don would have been a fantastic father if circumstances were different, but as it was…

"We can discuss it later, if you really want to." He nodded, but said nothing else, choosing instead to cuddle up to me more, which I was more than fine with.

I knew in the future we might return to this topic. And maybe in the future I would feel differently about adopting a child. But now, I was happy as it was. Yes, I thought to myself as I surveyed my adopted siblings around me, I was more than content with what I had right now.

* * *

Here you go, guys. A little insight into what Donnie and Irma are thinking about in their future. To make it clear, Irma would love to have a family with Don. But the lives of the turtles are incredibly chaotic, not to mention dangerous. It would make sense to me that she would be hesitant about bringing a child into that mess. But besides that, how about Adorable Raph and Baby? I thought that image was one of the cutest things myself, but I have this feeling that Raph would be a complete MUSH around little kids. Anyway, I hope you thought the chapter was fun and you'll be back for the next one! Please don't forget to drop a review, or give me constructive criticism if you have any! Until next time!


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